Local News Works: Testing the Effectiveness of Local News Placements

Written By: Fil Lourenco, VP, Performance & Platforms at Dentsu Media

We recently ran a 3-month test to prove the effectiveness of local news placements. We partnered with The Trade Desk to A/B test local news vs. non-news inventory, building a robust testing and measurement framework to track the media effectiveness.

Here’s what we learned:

• Local News Inventory improved higher Ad-Recall by 50%
• Local News campaigns had better quality with 15% higher TVQI (measure of impression quality)
• Local News campaigns achieved over 50% higher unique reach compared to non-local news campaigns
• Local News campaigns and non-local news campaigns had the same CPCV
• Local News campaigns performed above benchmark when it came to completion rates and viewability

Local news is a fundamental pillar of a healthy media ecosystem, and our local news outlets are struggling. Too often local news ends up on block lists due to brand safety concerns or is deprioritized to open exchange because of costs. This means advertisers are missing out on high quality and trusted media environments that capture the attention of Canadians.

The message is simple. Invest in what works. Invest in local news.

Shoutout to Amy Apostolou & Roohi Mudgil for putting this test together. I am lucky to have such an amazing team.

Extra shoutout to our local news partners who were a part of this: Postmedia Network Inc., Village Media, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, CBC, Corus Entertainment, Bell Media & Rogers Sports & Media.