After a 26-year wait, the New York Knicks are finally heading back to the NBA Finals, and advertisers couldn't be more excited about it.
EDO President and CEO Kevin Krim joined Liz Claman on Fox Business's The Claman Countdown to break down what the Knicks' run means for advertisers, why viewership numbers alone no longer tell the full story, and how brands should be thinking about live sports in an era where engagement is the real metric.
Check out the full video here, read on for key takeaways from Kevin’s conversation, and explore more of EDO's latest research on TV outcomes measurement.
Reach is no longer enough
The advertising industry has long relied on Nielsen ratings as the primary measure of success, but that bar is too low. What advertisers ultimately want is not just reach but engagement: did someone search for the brand after seeing the ad? Visit the website? Look up the product on ChatGPT? EDO tracks these downstream behaviors across a large opt-in panel, and they're predictive of the outcome that matters most: an actual purchase. As Kevin put it, "What advertisers always want to achieve is reaching the right audience and then engaging them with their brands and products, selling stuff to those people.”
Live sports offer peak performance
When it comes to where ads perform best, Kevin was clear: live events, especially sports, are in a category of their own. EDO's data shows that live audiences are more engaged not just with the content, but with the ads running alongside it. Streaming adds a targeting layer that can further boost per-person engagement, but the scale and engagement of live sports remain unmatched. "Live events, whether it's sports, news, or other event television, those drive the biggest differences in engagement," he said.
It’s not just the Knicks who are winning
As Kevin put it, this isn't just a huge win for Knicks fans. It's a huge win for Disney and ABC, who carry the NBA Finals, a huge win for the league, and a huge win for any advertiser who locked in their spots before the Knicks made their run. With the World Cup arriving in the tri-state area at the same time, advertisers have a rare opportunity to engage two very different and very large audiences at once, all in the world's biggest TV market.
Different events demand a different TV ad strategy
Kevin's key advice: don't apply the same strategy to every format. Live sports are wildly effective at driving engagement, but it comes at a premium, and the longer you wait, the higher the price. Spots committed during the upfront might run $500,000 to $1 million for 30 seconds. Last-minute inventory for a Knicks Finals game could cost multiples of that. "You have to understand what the right moment is in live sports," Kevin said, and if the opportunity is there and the campaign is right, it's worth it.
Watch Kevin's full conversation on Fox Business, and explore EDO's latest insights on streaming and linear TV measurement.