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Advertising | Featured Post | Innovation | Video

Condé Nast’s Deborah Brett on the power of partnerships

FKA Twigs joined by members of the Rambert Dance Company at Vogue World. Photo credit Marc Brenner/Vogue.

Condé Nast’s Global Digital Chief Business Officer Deborah Brett has a long history of leveraging the power of partnerships to drive consumer and advertiser growth and implement revenue-generating products. According to Brett, content drives consumer engagement and intent, which in turn delivers value for the reader and improves audience engagement.

“We’ve been doing this long before an advertorial or a branded content post or dark social ever existed,” she explained. “So, candidly, it’s been very easy for us to translate that legacy into all of the different emerging partnership platforms as they’ve presented themselves.”

A world of partnerships

Brett spent last week in London for Vogue World, which began last year as a live fashion show and street fair in New York but became an integral part of Fashion Week 2023. This is an emblematic partnership for the iconic Condé Nast fashion brand. And it’s something that Brett believes Condé Nast is uniquely positioned to do because of the caliber of its content, which drives audience engagement. 

“We’re executing Vogue World out of London, which will of course live on our owned and operated platforms. We’ll also engage the broader consumer-base across all of the social platforms,” said Brett. 

Celebrities, royals, opera singers, actors, supermodels, fashion designers descended on London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane for Vogue World London, a theatrical West End production encompassing the best of British culture and fashion. British Vogue teamed up with Italian luxury fashion house Moncler to host a VIP Vogue World party on September 14th at private members club George in Mayfair, which was decked out with Blooming Haus florals. 

The star-studded event celebrated iconic British creatives,  culture and fashion from Shakespeare to Stormzy, with performances from opera, theater, and film, as well as classical and pop music. The guest list included royals, celebrities, designers and featured music, dance, and a runway extravaganza finale. But the event’s reach was far from limited to the A-listers in attendance. 

“Wherever somebody happens to tune in, they’re going to be met with incredible content from Vogue World and the talent that engages in this event,” Brett explained. Audiences will also experience “all of the ways that our advertisers have integrated, activated on the ground–but more importantly–have activated within environments like TikTok, Instagram and X” (formerly known as Twitter).

The event is a calling card for how Condé Nast mirrors culture on the wide range of platforms where they reach consumers. It is also representative of how they bring advertisers along to the party. 

The approach illustrates what Pam Drucker Mann, Condé Nast’s global chief revenue officer, says at NewFronts in May: The company isn’t a walled garden. They are creators who meet consumers where they are.

The platforms

Condé Nast operates in 32 markets, among them France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Latin America, the U.K. and U.S. This vast global network consists of about 80 different distribution platforms, including the usual social suspects (Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, SnapChat, TikTok, LinkedIn) and YouTube as well as WeChat and Viber internationally. The media company also has a strong presence on Connected TV (Sling, Amazon Fire and Tubi, Roku) and across audio platforms (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocketcast, Google Play).

And as Brett pointed out, “It’s not just the same content everywhere, but tailored content that is going to be native and relevant to what that consumer expects.”

Condé Nast’s biggest platform partner is YouTube, where the company boasts more than 65 million subscribers, a gain of 12% over the previous year.

Earlier this year, Condé Nast announced over 300 new YouTube pilots over 55 brand channels in 11 countries. This included the return of over 230 original series, including Wired’s Autocomplete Interview, Vogue’s Beauty Secrets, GQ’s 10 Essentials and Architectural Digest’s Open Door, which together drove over 700 million views in 2022, Mann told Adweek. 

Condé Nast is also expanding its streaming partners to include Sling, Amazon Fire and Tubi. They’ve also got a brand channel for Architectural Digest on Roku, which features the Open Door and Unique Spaces series. These focus on celebrities’ private homes and the world’s most beautiful and architecturally unique homes, respectively.  

Condé Nast was also one of TikTok’s initial Pulse Premiere partners – a platform Brett said their audience demands they be part of. She describes TikTok as a platform that is turnkey, low-lift and scalable.  

Finding the right partners

Evaluating the perfect partnership involves a lot of considerations including brand image, customer benefits, fit, and value to bottom line. 

“For us, performance drives premiumness and premiumness drives performance. It’s a two-way street,” said Brett. “And what Condé Nast does uniquely is maintain a really strict code of elevated consumer engagement and elevated content creation.”

The media company does this by staying brand-consistent. They are driven by journalistic integrity. If they’re not authentic to the voice of that specific brand, the partnership doesn’t work. “If we miss on that authenticity, on the expectation of what Vogue would be or what the New Yorker would be or what Bon Appetit would be on one of these platforms, we’ll get called out.” 

Tracking conversion

Given the incredibly diverse platforms Condé Nast brands are on, as well as the global audience, evaluating ROI is a complex undertaking. However, Brett said that one of the most rewarding parts of her job is seeing how these efforts translate into conversions in trackable ways. 

“When we work with Meta, for example, when we use their platform, with our intent-driving content, we’re able to track attributable conversion: literal click to purchase, click to buy.” 

Condé Nast focuses on intent-driving metrics, like how likely people are to perform a certain action, for example, buying a product or attending an event. 

“For so long it felt like we knew we were driving these choices, but we would never have been able to bridge the gap with the click attribution of them actually happening.” Brett said that “the partnerships that we’ve built and the way that we’ve evolved, the way we work with all these different platforms and measurement tools have really proven back to us how direct that connection actually is. And we can see the dollars transact against our recommendations. I think that’s perhaps been–not the most surprising–but certainly the most satisfying.”

Brett said that witnessing the direct connection between the two has been a remarkable evolution of how platforms and capabilities are coming together to close the loop for the advertiser. Through metrics, they can see how it all intersects. For example, they can see how high value integrations convert to high value intents, and keep the funnel full while converting at the bottom of it.

“I think we like to say that content is really the best advertising, and to know that the content that we create for advertisers is driving every different stage of the consumer journey and that we can prove it for them in simple and repeatable ways. It’s just been such an exciting era for us as Condé Nast,” she said.

Premium connects the dots 

In the last five years or so, Brett said they’ve been able to move from more siloed strategies to connecting all of the dots. 

“I certainly think that the more recent shifts in cookie attribution and all the rest of these things has helped to open everybody to the power of premium content to drive performance and really figuring out how to connect those dots more purposefully.”

For a long time, the digital media industry relied on third-party cookie-based verification to assess and validate the performance and delivery of digital advertising campaigns. Cookies had broad-scale adoption, but that all changed when Google announced it would phase out third-party cookies on Chrome.  

“Now without that crutch, we’re really leaning back into what is true, what is fundamental, what speaks to the consumer, and how we come together to capitalize on that, but also to measure that in really meaningful ways.” 

Digital media companies are now focusing on privacy, transparency and user consent as they consider alternative strategies for measurement. First-party data is more reliable and privacy-compliant and boosts engagement through personalization, content creation and recommendations and targeted advertising. 

“I think everything that we do is calibrated around meaningful engagement for the consumer,” said Brett. “So every single campaign we’ve ever run and every single choice that we’re making would ladder into that ultimate goal. If it’s not delivering value for our audience, it’s not a place where we belong.”

Advertising | Featured Post

Digital media’s successful symbiosis of subscription data and advertising

If content is king, then context is God. As third-party cookies vanish in the rear view mirror, first-party data is moving media companies to pole position for advertisers. So how are they using their subscribers’ data to provide better context than ever for advertisers – and increasing their own return?

News and magazine publishers have always boasted of their relationship with their audiences. Direct, unfiltered access to consumers has always been part of their selling point to advertisers. And that’s never been truer than now.

With Google still making its slow march towards the deprecation of third-party cookies in 2024, brands and advertisers are hungry for alternatives to ensure a good ROI. That has provided digital media organizations with a megaphone to shout about the data they have on their members and subscribers – data which has been freely handed over during and after sign-up, and which avoids the privacy issues related to GDPR and other legislation.

Dave Randall, UK commercial director for Future plc, points out that “Privacy updates have and will fundamentally change the way brands buy media. There is a seismic shift coming to a market that has been inundated with made-for-advertising sites, click farms, contentious user-generated content and questionable third-party data.

“I believe premium publishers with professionally produced specialist content are in the best place to benefit.”

Effectively, the creation of content that Future and other digital media companies know appeals to their audiences provides the context for effective advertising. Those companies, with their vast array of acquisition and conversion data relating to their demographics, can serve up ads relevant to the content against which they appear.

Research has demonstrated that consumers are not averse to digital advertising provided it is of personal relevance, also that they are wary of “creepy” means of determining that relevance. That provides media companies with registration walls with a huge opportunity: they can square the circle between serving up salient marketing and preserving privacy.

“For advertising to be successful, it’s important to build an environment in which both readers want to spend time and advertisers want to invest,” according to Imogen Fox, chief advertising officer of Guardian Media Group. “Too many ad-funded sites place the volume of advertising over the experience that users have when they visit the site. This reduces the likelihood of audiences paying attention to the advertising and the effectiveness of the overall campaign.”

Damon Reeve is CEO of the Ozone Project, a collective of premium publishers leveraging the context of their owned-and-operated properties to sell ads at better rates than would otherwise be possible. He explains that “Advertising in context and with a creative message that is contextually relevant will always produce a better outcome for brand advertisers.

“The current programmatic model emphasizes audience targeting [out of context]. But, as third-party cookies deprecate, that will drive renewed interest in contextual targeting and creative message, which will benefit premium publishing.”

Clearing the hurdles

All of the above is, of course, contingent on a number of factors. For one thing, it is still easier said than done to sign consumers up. For all the progress digital publishers have made in refining their acquisition and retention strategies, even the most successful have registered only tiny fractions of overall internet users.

Moreover, many of those registered users have provided nothing but name, email, and the journeys they make while logged into sites. It’s far better than alternative – unregistered users – but far from the holistic view of a user to which advertisers have become accustomed.

Reeve elaborates: “Registered [and] paying readers create a much stronger data signal than anonymous readers, that creates a better return from advertising as we can provide better targeting and insight to advertisers. This will only strengthen when third-party cookies deprecate, and the gap widens between the quality of the data from registered/paying readers and anonymous readers.”

A second issue is that privacy concerns are not entirely eradicated with the deprecation of the third-party cookie. While the use of data clean rooms or efforts like the IAB’s ‘Seller Defined Audiences’ tool can ameliorate those issues, it still requires investment on the part of the paper or magazine to initialize and optimize.

So, while the very nature of a media brand’s website provides some measure of context to the ads that appear on there, publishers need to invest to truly make the most of it. Products like Piano claim that “value difference between users, pages, referral sources, and other channels is not just two or three times higher but hundreds of times higher” when users are registered – but that requires media companies to partner up or pay for access to those data tools.

Blended future

The reality is that, for most mass-market media brands, neither subscriptions nor advertising alone will sustain them. While subscriptions have come roaring back to the fore for digital publishers, advertising is still on par with subscription revenue in terms of their priorities.

Smart media leaders are therefore thinking about how the two revenue strategies synergize, rather than keeping them separate. Katie Le Ruez, director of digital, Guardian News & Media, explains: “As privacy changes come into force, brands will want to continue to reach relevant audiences at scale as they do today, so they will need to lean into alternative tech and the contextual targeting that it offers. Greater numbers of people visiting websites will be unreachable using traditional advertising technologies, and privacy-preserving tech often relies on contextual signals.”

“At the Guardian, we’ve been testing solutions that serve advertising to audiences who choose to ‘reject all’. We know that multiple ad tech vendors who traditionally offered brand safety solutions are now pivoting to offer contextual solutions too. This is a clear indication that contextual advertising will have greater value in future.” 

And Randall believes that “Contextual advertising will return as a key pillar for brands to connect with audiences authentically. Alongside intelligent first-party data solutions, publishers and advertisers can further collaborate to make the future of advertising more effective and transparent”.

So, while the spray-and-pray approach to contextless digital advertising is unlikely to go anywhere, there is an alternative for more discerning advertisers. Just as the ads that appeared in print magazines and papers benefited from the context of the content around them, so too do the ads that appear on publishers’ websites. Combine that with the first-party data to which they have access, and those titles are poised to further differentiate themselves from the non-premium contextless adverts bought and sold on the wider web.

Advertising | Supporter Spotlight

Quality ads play a crucial role in retaining audiences

From web articles to streaming and CTV, excelling in the digital media realm goes beyond mere content creation. It’s about crafting an unparalleled experience that speaks directly to the needs and preferences of your audience. Media executives need to focus on enhancing user experience by seamlessly integrating quality ads into content to increase engagement, conversions, revenue – and trust.

In today’s crowded media landscape, retaining the attention and loyalty of your digital audience has never been more important. And while content is key, advertising experiences play a critical role. 

Elevating user experience

In an age of seemingly endless choice, it can be tough for publishers and broadcasters to stand out amidst the vast sea of content. Yet, by prioritizing the quality of the experience over quantity and ensuring seamless ad integration—whether on-page or on CTV—media companies can foster deeper loyalty and trust. Simply put, when ads feel less like interruptions and more like an integrated part of the narrative, it strengthens audience retention and enhances monetization opportunities.

This is in contrast to certain websites where publishers prioritize immediate monetization over ad quality, leading to the risk of showcasing “junk ads,” click-bait, and intrusive pop-ups. By partnering with demand sides that serve less relevant ads, these sites alienate visitors, reduce traffic, and deter users from returning. 

Research from Adform underscores the significant influence of ad relevance, with one study 

finding that ads perceived as relevant and non-intrusive boosted dwell time by up to 30%. This accentuates the pivotal role of ad relevance in captivating and retaining audiences. Another study from IAB Europe revealed that users who encountered such ads were more inclined to engage, leading to higher click-through and conversion rates.

While many monetization tactics chase immediate returns, lasting success comes from nurturing reader trust. Ensuring you have premium ads hosted on your equally premium content not only attracts but also solidifies a dedicated reader base.

Engaging ads: The secret to captivating and retaining audiences

The digital landscape is a noisy place. In the midst of this cacophony, publishers are grappling with a challenge: retaining visitors. The key? Quality advertising.

Recent research by GeoEdge and Digiday sheds light on a stark reality: a significant 76% of publishers feel that their user experience is hampered due to subpar ad quality. This isn’t just a slight hiccup; 66% admitted that these ad issues directly hit their revenue stream. Yet, this data also presents a golden opportunity for publishers: prioritize ad quality, and the audience will follow.

Enter the era of premium content. It’s not just about what’s written or shown; it’s about the complete package. High-caliber content doesn’t just seize attention; it commands it. And when paired with outstanding ad experiences, publishers unlock a treasure trove of attention, amplifying their monetization potential. To put this into perspective, the elite domains – those in the top 25% – rake in attention for display ads at a staggering rate of 11 times more than their counterparts in the lower quartile.  

But let’s dig deeper. What really happens when superior ads meld with an impeccable user experience (UX)? The engagement figures speak for themselves. Quality content can rocket user attention to levels three times that of giants like Facebook. As for viewable display formats, they aren’t just another ad type; they’re powerhouses of attention–a sentiment echoed by Lumen’s December 2022 report.

Cultivating trust through tailored advertising

A thriving publisher-audience relationship is built on a foundation of trust. When readers come across ads that resonate with their interests, it solidifies their connection to the platform. MediaPost’s findings further validate this dynamic. Publishers who implemented contextual targeting experienced a 10% surge in dwell time and a 5% uptick in CTR.

The synthesis of these studies paints a vivid picture. High-quality, value-driven, and non-disruptive ads wield the power to improve various metrics – from dwell time and CTR to conversions. It’s evident that in the quest for heightened monetization, the user experience remains paramount.

And if numbers could tell tales, here’s a compelling one: A focused study conducted between Teads and Condé Nast revealed that top-tier ads don’t just flicker momentarily in the user’s vision. They linger, holding the viewer’s gaze for an impressive 11.3 seconds. The result? A whopping 49% spike in engagement. In the digital realm, attention is currency. Quality ads aren’t just a strategy; they’re a necessary art form, marrying content with commerce, and ensuring that audiences aren’t just visitors, but loyal patrons.

Guidelines for selecting a cookieless contextual targeting partner

With the decline of cookies, selecting an adept contextual targeting partner becomes imperative. Here’s what publishers should consider when seeking a partner who can assist in effectively targeting and engaging their audience in a digital landscape where cookies are no longer viable:

  • Precision: Context is king, and delivering relevant and accurate ads with precision becomes even more crucial in the absence of cookies. Look for a partner that emphasizes user-centric experiences and can ensure that your ads resonate with the right audience. 
  • Reputation: Collaborate with those whose reputation complements yours, such as a partner backed by a decade of expertise in successfully serving premium audiences and upholding integrity and excellence in every facet of contextual targeting. 
  • Real-time Insights:  The absence of cookies underscores the critical need for swift and accurate data to inform decision-making. To address this, partner with platforms that provide real-time insights, allowing you to swiftly adjust and refine your targeting strategies on the go.
  • Integrated Tools: Partner with platforms that offer a holistic approach, ensuring publisher success with comprehensive tools. By providing an array of integrated tools, from precise audience segmentation to seamless ad placements, publishers are empowered to navigate the evolving landscape of digital advertising with a well-rounded and effective contextual targeting strategy.
  • Adaptable and Scalable: Choose a partner that can evolve with the digital landscape’s ever-changing nature – after all, the industry is constantly shifting, and your chosen partner should be prepared to change alongside it.
  • Amplifying Platform Integrity: Dive into a partnership that celebrates and amplifies your platform’s integrity. By partnering with a platform that prioritizes user-centric content and respects the reader’s preferences, you not only retain your audience but also enhance your platform’s authenticity.

Retaining the interest and loyalty of your audience has never been more crucial in today’s competitive media environment. Undoubtedly, quality content is the most critical factor to stand out. However, there are other factors at play, particularly in the digital and connected TV (CTV) industry. It is critical that media organizations focus on providing exceptional experiences to audiences, and that must include high-quality, optimal advertising. 

Advertising | Featured Post | Revenue

Retail media: Friend, foe, or something in between?

Brands have paid for premium product placement in stores as long as there have been stores. Whether it’s book publishers paying to get their books turned face-out on the shelves or your favorite cookie company splurging for an end-cap display in the supermarket, companies are used to paying for placement. But now, like so much else, that trend has gone digital.

Retail media networks [RMNs] are not exactly new, but they are growing in popularity, especially with U.S. advertisers, where interest has traditionally lagged. As more shoppers move from brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce, retailers are looking for new ways to engage buyers and advertisers on the web. That’s led to retailers becoming their own ad networks, charging advertisers to promote products on their sites — and this has the potential to impact revenue for media companies.

Sizing the retail media market

According to Bain & Company, “Retail media is expected to be a $61 billion business by 2024—double its 2021 numbers.” This increased spending is indicative of an overall shift toward digital ad spending, says Bain: “In 2019, about 50% of ad spending went to digital campaigns, and by the close of 2021, about two-thirds of US advertising was digital.” But that’s not the end of the story.

While digital ad spending in the U.S. has been on the rise for years, retail media has not traditionally been a big draw. In fact, historically, retail media advertising has been a much bigger player in China. Now, however, interest is growing stateside. Not only is it growing faster than China’s spending, but it’s got more room to grow, according to Insider Intelligence. 

There are a few factors at play here, says Li Lu, Research Director at Digiday Media. First, Lu says, retail media has become a more robust channel, and companies like Omnicom make it easier to get more information as retailers build out their networks. But they say there is another factor at work here: the loss of the third-party cookie.

Digital publishers know the story well: As third-party cookies go the way of the Dodo and the web becomes a more privacy-conscious place, first-party data is imperative. And RMNs have first-party data in spades. Retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target are close to the customer at the point of checkout and know the kinds of products an individual user is searching for and often what they may have bought in the past. This makes it easier for advertisers to target users based on their personal preferences and positions retailers as excellent partners when it comes to driving actual sales.

In fact, Lu says, the KPIs are really what’s driving a lot of this change. Retail media traffics in actual sales, while on social media, success is often measured in impressions or clicks. “You’re so close to the customer at their checkout point,” Lu says of retail media networks. People there are “shopping with a purpose in mind.” Naturally, they are further up the funnel and ready to make a purchase.

It’s also important to note that revenue from RMNs is a completely new and discrete income stream, not just a replacement for flagging in-store opportunities. McKinsey reports, “Our research suggests that more than 80 percent of spend flowing into retail media networks is incremental and comes from all sources, including net new spend and reinvestment of brand and performance budgets. So for retailers, RMNs provide an incremental source of high-margin revenue, and substitution for shopper or co-op marketing can be managed.”

Who is leading the retail media pack?

Of course, not all online retailers are created equal — and ad spend can tell us a lot about who the leaders are. Lu says that Digiday’s research found “Amazon was the most popular media retail partner.” A whopping 76% of respondents said they partnered with Amazon, and that Walmart and Target came in next, with more than 30% saying they partnered with these retail giants. Other research backs this up. 

Still, Amazon’s dominance is sure to wane eventually, according to Lu. As other retail media networks improve their search capabilities — search is currently one of Amazon’s biggest benefits over other options — and new competitors emerge, advertisers are bound to shift their spending priorities. In fact, delivery apps like Instacart are already becoming a destination for some brands — and are even driving some of the growth in a post-pandemic world where people have gotten used to shopping online, even for things like groceries.

Increasingly, price is also a problem. Lu says Digiday’s research revealed that the cost of retail media placements was a concern. From CPC models to actual conversions, they are all getting pricier. Lu says, “Advertisers may start diversifying if it gets too expensive and can’t scale.” 

Content and commerce is the way forward 

Publishers may have yet another competitor to deal with when it comes to vying for dwindling ad dollars, but hope is not lost. On top of the price concerns that Lu mentioned, ANA found that “A major concern expressed repeatedly throughout the study was that although [retail media networks] are being credited for driving brand sales, they have not yet convinced advertisers of their ability to drive brand growth. We found that 67 percent of our respondents cited ‘to drive conversion’ as their most important objective with RMNs, while only 7 percent cited ‘to drive awareness.’” This presents an opportunity for publishers.

While RMNs may have an advantage when it comes to down-funnel actions, publishers can still leverage their first-party data to help drive awareness. But publishers also have some potential to become a commerce-driven partner for brand advertisers as well. 

Last December, just after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Digiday reported, “Hearst Magazines’ total product sales increased by 50% year-over-year” and “Foundry’s U.S.-based brands saw a 57% increase year-over-year in the total dollar amount they generated for retailers through sales.” 

Embracing commerce media may just be publishers’ best bet to help win some of those RMN dollars; while retailers may have an advantage for funneling consumers who are already close to purchasing toward advertisers, publishers may be able to reach people who are still contemplating a purchase. From review seekers to people looking for gift ideas to browsers who are open to discovering new products, media companies can compete if they are willing to embrace new, commerce-driven strategies.

Advertising | Industry-Research | Supporter Spotlight

Surprising revenue opportunities offered by automating Ad Ops

Ad operations (ad ops) involves a complex number of tasks relating to the execution of online advertising campaigns. With the global digital advertising market expected to hit $185.17B this year, the industry is increasingly competitive at a time of reduced consumer spending and economic uncertainty. This boom in digital advertising can be attributed to the ever-increasing consumer demand for online content and the rise of online shopping. With that in mind, companies using automation to streamline processes and supplement the work of ad ops teams could see an increase in revenue.

Automation has emerged as a tool nearly every industry is using, yet ad ops is still a notoriously manual process. From campaign management and reporting to trafficking and optimization, there are a plethora of procedures teams need to follow to ensure success. This manual process hinders productivity considerably and is prone to human error and inefficiencies – ultimately slowing order cycles and delaying revenue growth.

According to a recent study we conducted at Theorem, 69% of surveyed ad ops professionals cite that their company’s digital advertising processes need improvement. And another 79% reported that the tools or solutions they use to try to solve this challenge could be better.

As advertising is a key revenue model for publishers, streamers and media companies alike, this is a big problem. One that — if not quickly resolved — will lead to unnecessary financial burden that no company can afford.

So, what’s the secret? How can we simplify the ad ops process and find revenue in a place far too often ignored or overlooked?

The answer is automation.

Automation eliminates makegoods

Our survey revealed that the number one pain point for ad ops professionals is finding time to complete time-consuming tasks. End to end, the ad ops process consists of many error-prone tasks. Teams input data into spreadsheets, manually check and cross-check targeting, or pull data from multiple sources to manually create reporting.

This leads to companies experiencing high percentages of makegoods, which occur when an advertising campaign fails to deliver on a pre-agreed target number of metrics. Managing makegoods is operationally time consuming as workflows and reporting are adjusted—not to mention that the advertising campaign itself may underperform as a result.

With the stakes being so high, it’s time for businesses to jump on the automation bandwagon when it comes to ad ops. Makegoods have become so commonplace within the industry they are being written into contracts as an expectation. Automation has the power to revolutionize how organizations conduct business by addressing systemic challenges that increase profits while reducing human error. It can also centralize information and establish consistencies across processes that eliminate bottlenecks and minimize makegoods. By making makegoods obsolete and automating ad ops processes, revenue cycles accelerate. Processing a higher volume of work more efficiently allows ad-supported business models to see increased revenue faster.

Automation boosts strategic thinking and creativity

Ad ops teams realize that the benefits of automation extend beyond eliminating makegoods. Theorem found that three in five ad ops professionals agree that their team does not have enough time to be proactive.

Of those surveyed, 62% said automation can be used for generating reports, 59% said it could be used for completing repeatable tasks  and 56% said it could be used for eliminating labor-intensive tasks. Ad ops professionals are able to be more proactive and focus on creativity and the strategic direction of the business with automation performing those tasks.

These professionals are well-versed in a multitude of platforms and are highly organized, detailed-oriented and analytical – making them incredibly valuable to their organizations. Implementing automation and using it as a professional development opportunity adds weight to a business’s career development pathways and can help boost morale and increase employee engagement.

It has long been recognized that a happy workforce is a more productive one. In fact, 90% of survey respondents said they were open to their roles evolving as a result of automation. Essentially, the majority of respondents see automation as a compliment to human efforts, not a replacement. This, coupled with the financial benefits that automation can bring would suggest that the implementation of such technology would have significant benefits to any business.

Ad ops professionals are pivotal to the overall success of an organization, and yet they are often overlooked and underappreciated. Current ad ops processes are archaic and laborious and do not provide the optimal setting for team success. By engaging with automation, businesses can revolutionize their advertising prowess while simultaneously improving the productivity of their workforce. And that is a winning combination that will boost bottom line success.

Advertising | Supporter Spotlight

Advertising has an addressability problem; publishers can help 

The combination of users choosing cookie-blocking browsers and opting out of tracking has led to 70% of the internet being invisible to adtech. The result is a vast addressability problem in the open marketplace (OMP), which has put publisher revenues and advertiser reach in freefall.

Innovative publishers address this head-on by building direct-sold businesses, finding privacy-forward solutions to monetize 100% of their audiences and building deeper and long-term relationships with advertisers. 

Addressing the entire web

The advertising industry is starting to realize that while the OMP completely changed the way media owners and advertisers collaborated, becoming the “path to least resistance” for both buyers and sellers, it is now creating more resistance. 

For publishers, it’s the adtech tax and data leakage that occurs in the OMP. In addition, it’s damaging to the user experience that premium publishers pride themselves on, as they cannot guarantee that their users get relevant ads.

Direct-sold offers both parties the best possible solution to OMP woes. Premium publishers have first-party data sets, which are built on authenticated, contextual, declared, and behavioral data, that can be leveraged by advertisers to reach the unreachable 70% of online audiences.

Premium publishers have strong relationships with their users that have been built on trust. This enables them to tell compelling stories about their audiences – through the first-party data they’ve collected from those users – and provide the insights that advertisers are looking for. Because of the source of the data, publishers are able to be transparent about how their audience segments have been built, and provide real evidence of how connecting with these audiences can help advertisers achieve their objectives.

 Identifying the opportunity

The need to return to more of a direct-sold approach has already been identified by some advertisers, with a growing trend beginning to flourish at the backend of 2022, when publishers saw a 25% drop in OMP revenue and a 37% increase in direct-sold audience revenue, growing to 55% in the first quarter of 2023.

This trend is none more evident than in the US (the largest programmatic market in the world) where there is a clear shift in focus from the OMP toward direct relationships. In fact, according to eMarketer, direct-sold ads will represent 75% of the total programmatic digital display ad market by 2024, with OMP only accounting for 8.5%.

Publishers, having realized that the industry’s direction of travel means that the OMP is largely ineffective, have been driving forward with adjustments to their strategies, particularly when it comes to the use of first-party data. Gumtree, for example, where the use of first-party data in direct deals has led to a 36% increase in click-through rates in the first quarter of the year.

Meanwhile, Trusted Media Brands (TMB) – which is home to titles including Reader’s Digest, FailArmy, The Pet Collective, and People Are Awesome – has reached a stage where the vast majority of its direct-sold campaigns (94%) are using first-party data.

Beneficial for all

Ultimately, the best way for publishers to maximize their revenues is to realize the addressability issue is a very real problem today and for publisher CROs and brands to recognize that the OMP can no longer deliver the effectiveness that it used to.

The answer to the OMP’s shortcomings, and the need for addressability, lies in direct-sold deals and the first-party data that publishers hold to power those deals. 

Direct deals open up audiences for advertisers, ensure transparency and control, and guarantee access to the premium inventory they can’t find in the OMP. It’s up to publishers to show advertisers the access and insights they can get into audiences that will provide them with the ability to accurately target users and achieve the outcomes they are looking for.

The direct-sold strategy means publishers can grow their revenues, users get to see only the ads that are most relevant to them, and advertisers get the most out of their budgets. 

Advertising | Industry-Research | Video

Advertising popular with streamers and consumers

It is becoming increasingly clear that advertising will play a significant role in the streaming ecosystem. As Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors in Disney’s quarterly earnings call, “The advertising marketplace for streaming is picking up.It’s more healthy than the advertising marketplace for linear television. We believe in the future of advertising on our streaming platforms, both Disney+ and Hulu.”

Industry giants are now seamlessly incorporating ad-supported tiers into their streaming options. This shift from the early days of subscription-based, ad free streaming underscores the industry-wide recognition that catering to budget-conscious consumers is integral to achieving sustainable subscriber growth.

New research from HUB, TV Advertising: Fact or Fiction, affirms that most television viewers actively embrace ad-supported offerings. Six out of ten viewers prefer ad-supported subscriptions, especially when presented with the prospect of a reduced monthly fee. Interestingly, those with reservations about advertising remain in the minority, underscoring the widespread acceptance of ads as an primary and tolerable factor of content consumption.

Shifting the paradigm

The transformation in consumer sentiment towards ad-supported subscriptions carries a dual impact. Firstly, it renders ad-supported tiers significantly more appealing to a broader spectrum of viewers, including those who haven’t subscribed previously. Secondly, it reinforces the notion that the quality and diversity of content have a significant influence over viewer preferences. This often outweighs the appeal of a completely ad-free experience. Within the streaming ecosystem, advertising now emerges as a central thread weaving together content variety, affordability, and viewer gratification.

The rising desire for customization

Furthermore, a growing trend in viewer preferences is the desire for enhanced control over subscription tiers. Nearly four out of 10 viewers express a strong inclination towards personalizing their subscription model. They’re searching for a flexible array of choices, ranging from a premium, ad-free encounter to a more budget-friendly alternative featuring strategically placed advertisements. The attraction in customization preferences empowers streaming providers to cater to a broader spectrum of consumer segments.

Entrants that intrigue

Notable platforms like Max, Disney+, and Netflix, which recently embraced ad-supported tiers, are meeting positivity from their audiences. This dispels concerns about potentially hurting your brand in a previously ad-free service due to the introduction of advertisements. Twenty-seven percent of viewers switched tiers. Among them, 60% switched from with ad to no ad tiers, and 46% switched from no ads to with ad tiers.

Enhancing engagement through thoughtful execution

Ensuring a satisfactory viewing experience for consumers creates an environment ripe for advertisers to thrive. When viewers encounter an appropriate amount of advertising content, their engagement levels increase. This principle extends not only to the overall number of ads but also to the duration of ad breaks. Contrary to the notion that advertising detracts from the streaming experience, it possesses the potential to elevate it, capturing viewers’ undivided attention when executed thoughtfully.

The valuable component of ad-supported subscriptions

As viewing sources diversify, ad-supported subscriptions assume a key role within the streaming landscape. Subscribers want the autonomy to mold their subscription expenditure as well as the degree of advertising they’re willing to embrace. In response, streaming platforms offer a dual strategy, presenting ad-supported and ad-free tiers. This shift harmonizes content diversity, affordability, and engagement, shaping the streaming ecosystem.

Advertising | Supporter Spotlight

How media companies can evolve their first-party data strategy

With third-party cookie deprecation looming on the horizon, first-party data is becoming increasingly important for media companies. Advertisers have grown accustomed to the granular targeting that cookies offered and seek solid solutions underpinned by strategy and technology that will deliver attention and engagement from a brand-suitable, high-quality audience.  

At Arc XP’s recent customer conference, Ryan Gladstone, Director of Product Management at Arc XP, and Nick Nyhan, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Upside Analytics, shared strategies that media companies can employ to leverage their first-party data most effectively. Here are the key takeaways:

Why should media companies care about first-party data?

First-party data is considered the highest-quality data available because the information is willingly provided directly from the source: your audience. Unlike second- or third-party data, first-party data is proprietary and more accurate and updated than when it comes through other sources. Moreover, you can use it on a granular level to improve how you serve and grow engagement, even creating bespoke audience segments unique to your market and content. That flexibility, coupled with accuracy and the ability to respond to browser changes and evolving privacy laws, makes first-party data a critically valuable organizational asset.

Strategically, first-party data is particularly important to gather and use to enrich both audience and advertising revenue models. When effectively deployed, the collection of first-party data leads to higher audience conversion rates. Organizations that gather first-party data are more valuable to advertisers and, therefore, are able to charge higher rates. Audiences are also more willing to provide first-party data if they see you as a trusted information source, if they hear it helps them have a smoother login experience, or a more relevant and personalized experience. When explained well, it is a win for you and your audience.

Start where you are: Crawl, Walk, Run

When developing your organization’s first-party data collection strategy, it can be helpful to conceptualize the journey with a three-level model. You have to crawl before you can walk, and you have to walk before you can run.

Level 1: Crawl

Segments are the key to driving more sophisticated business strategies with your audience. At level one, you’ll introduce some basic segmentation principles and practices to your organization’s data strategies. Start your journey by gathering data and creating easily addressable audience segments that you can use to advance both your audience revenue and advertising revenue strategies.

  1. Gather email addresses: If you’re not sure where to start, this is where to do it. Putting together an email list is a basic priority of first-party data. This single piece of information is the most important piece of data to many systems – from CRM (customer relationship management) to advertising and registration. If you’re going to ask for anything, ask for email addresses.

  2. Set up segmentation: Once a user has provided you with their email address, they’ll be more likely to provide you with other pieces of information, too. You can use this opportunity to ask questions of your audience that will help you begin to create audience segments.

  3. Start connecting the dots: Once you have email and basic survey data collection in place, you have almost everything you need to start creating simple but powerful addressable segments. All you need to do now is start tracking engagement. There are a lot of different ways to do that, but Google Analytics is a great place to start.

Level 2: Walk

When you enter the next stage, you should already have established the basic building blocks of your first-party data collection infrastructure. At this point, you can start to introduce new layers of sophistication to extend, fine-tune, and refine your existing strategies.

  1. Roll out progressive profiling: To extend the number and type of audience segments that you’re able to create, you’re going to need to gather more data. This will help you build out your profiles and get a more complete picture of your audience.
  2. Implement A/B testing: At this stage, one of your main goals should be to refine and optimize the systems you established in the Crawl stage. When considering changes to your website, for instance, it’s a great idea to run A/B tests on your audience to determine the most effective path forward. 
  3. Tailor your offers: The more data you have, the more explicitly you’ll be able to be target. However, you choose to segment your audience, try using the data to share relevant offers.

Level 3: Run

At the Run stage, you’ll be implementing greater levels of sophistication into your first-party data systems and using the information you collect to enable more complex long-term initiatives with more precision.

  1. Personalize your site: With enough data to work with, you may be able to tailor your entire site experience to each audience group. You might opt to show fewer ads to dedicated subscribers. Or you might advertise your own organization through in-house advertising to higher-propensity audience segments, but not others. That can make a huge difference and presents much larger revenue opportunities.
  2. Blend and extend your data: No matter how much you know about your audience, there are always opportunities to learn more. So in addition to progressive profiling, data can be potentially sourced from what is already resident within your CMS system or email systems, adding context about interest areas and times of engagement, further enhancing your knowledge and how to serve different segments.
  1. Share your knowledge: It’s not uncommon for media organizations to enter into an alliance with one another to share their permissioned first-party data. It’s as if you and your peers are each bringing a piece of a puzzle to the table and combining them to make something bigger.

Following these strategies can help you successfully build an audience segmentation strategy that navigates the impact of the third-party cookie deprecation while building a sophisticated approach that delivers advertisers genuine engagement with highly-desirable audiences.

Advertising | Industry-Research | Video

For SVOD success, launch with ads from the start

In the ever-changing landscape of streaming services, media companies constantly explore new strategies to attract and maintain subscribers. One notable approach is the success of the ad-support SVOD tier. In fact, new research from Ampere shows that streaming services launching with an ad-supported tier from the start have a higher proportion of subscribers than those that added it later.

Ampere’s data reveals that SVOD services like Hulu and Peacock, which were early adopters of ad-supported tiers, boast an impressive 90% of ad-supported viewers. On the other hand, latecomers like Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max struggle to gain significant traction with their ad-supported options. These late starters capture only a small share of their subscriber base. For instance, as of June 2023, approximately 2% of Netflix and Disney+ US subscribers are on the ad-supported tier. Even HBO Max, which launched an ad tier in March 2021, had only 5% of its subscribers on its ad-supported plan before transitioning to Max in April.

Drivers of success

Ultimately, an ad-supported tier’s success depends on several factors, including the service’s pricing strategy, content library, and targeted audience. Launching with an ad-supported option from the start appears to be more effective in building a substantial base of viewers. Late adopters may find attracting a significant share of their subscribers to the ad-supported tier challenging. This is especially true if the service has a strong legacy of being ad-free.

Ad-free service is still appealing

Despite the apparent appeal of ad-supported viewing, most new subscribers across the top seven SVOD services still prefer ad-free plans. According to Antenna data, between January and May 2023, three out of five new subscribers opted for ad-free viewing. Even services that recently introduced ad-supported tiers, such as Peacock, saw a considerable percentage (69%) of new subscribers choosing ad-free options.

However, there are potential changes on the horizon. Netflix has made a strategic decision to remove its Basic plan, which previously served as a mid-range option between the ad-supported and standard ad-free plans. With the elimination of the Basic plan, the price gap between ad-supported and ad-free viewing has increased significantly from $3 to $8.50 monthly. This move might lead more new subscribers to opt for ad-supported viewing due to the cost difference.

Additionally, Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing during June and July 2023 could have also impacted its subscriber base. Free viewers who were previously enjoying content outside of the subscriber’s home are now more likely to sign up for their accounts. For these price-conscious users, the cheaper ad-supported tier could become an appealing option.

However, the trend of traditionally ad-free services attracting more ad-free subscribers might continue to prevail. Peacock’s decision to close the free ad-supported tier to new users. However, they still allow existing subscribers of the free ad-supported to continue using it. This suggests that companies are recognizing the importance of retaining ad-free subscribers.

Advertising | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight | Video

Here’s why publishers should be thinking about CTV revenue

Once again, the media world has found itself in belt-tightening mode. A number of high-profile media companies have announced layoffs, and ad spend has grown more slowly in 2023 than in the previous few years. Publishers are looking for revenue streams beyond subscription packages – and for those who have video content, CTV offers a lot of promise. 

After all, CTV is where the growth is, in terms of ad spend and audience. For publishers that are already monetizing video on desktop and mobile, CTV is the most intuitive next step for diversifying revenue. For those that aren’t monetizing their video content yet, that’s all the more reason to jump into CTV.

In terms of both viewership and the influx of ad dollars, CTV is growing like gangbusters. Streaming CTV ad spend is tracking to reach $23 billion by 2026 – a double-digit increase from today. Streaming video consumption has surpassed linear TV, as experts had predicted, and there will be 3.5 users of over-the-top (OTT) streaming services globally by 2027. 

Right now, the audience growth is coming from ad-supported tiers, which is an ad inventory source so desired by brands that supply can’t keep up with demand. This sure sounds like a field day for the Netflixes and Hulus of the world. But while the largest streaming platforms get the lion’s share of attention in the industry trades, they won’t be – and, considering demand, can’t be – the sole beneficiaries of this influx of ad spend.

Power to the content owners

According to industry experts, more than 90% of CTV ad spend coming through DSPs goes to around 30 streaming platforms. That’s a much larger number than the handful of big names that get name-dropped most frequently in CTV conversations. Not many of these platforms own all, or even most, of their content outright. They source it through deals with other media creators. And those creators have a distinct advantage: They reserve the rights to sell ads on their content. Streaming services don’t have exclusivity in the same way as the publisher who creates the content. 

Clearly, media companies stand to benefit greatly by partnering with CTV services for video syndication. There are two types of publishers who can most easily grab those ad dollars: those that already stream their content on CTV, and those that have video content on their owned and operated properties that they’re not monetizing via CTV yet. 

We’ve heard about leading publishers who have launched their own video apps on CTV services including The Economist, Vox, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. But across the broader landscape of publishers who produce the high-quality video content advertisers crave, there’s a great untapped opportunity for ad revenue. 

Good news for publishers: The bar for entering the CTV space isn’t nearly as high as it was a few years ago. Free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services have democratized access to the streaming ad market, as it’s not nearly as costly as developing a subscription app – the means of access in the days before FAST. 

Publishers who already have the video content can launch their own channels across multiple CTV platforms and devices, at a reasonable cost. For the great many publishers who already have experience syndicating video across social channels, it’s an intuitive move and it opens up inventory that delivers higher CPMs, is more desirable to advertisers than pre-roll on the video players hosted on publishers’ own digital properties, and presents opportunities for advertisers to connect with viewers in a wider variety of viewing environments and viewer mindsets. 

CTV calls for a strong data strategy

Expanding to CTV will be an easier task for publishers who partner with data platforms that offer flexibility and interoperability. The limited availability of actionable, scalable first-party data remains a pain point not only for advertisers, but for publishers looking to get into streaming. This presents challenges in working across streaming platforms and devices, which have their own data but are reticent to share it. To drive the most revenue, publishers will want to be able to connect their data with any of their ad partners who need it for campaign optimization. That means the ability to solve for identity, and to provide interoperability, are essential pieces of the puzzle.

A solid, well-applied data strategy opens up key advertising functions like cross-platform targeting, frequency capping, and personalization at scale. Publishers don’t have to consider themselves out on their own in sourcing the necessary data, though. Streaming device makers are one place to look, although publishers may need to match the device makers’ proprietary IDs for actionable cross-platform insights. Using IP as a proxy (common in CTV) enables measurement in CTV, although IP may not be the best proxy in other digital environments, or for targeting at the individual level. Demographic, location, behavioral, and other data from data providers will enable programmatic buying, and incentivize advertisers that want the scale and efficiency of programmatic. 

To get the most value from CTV, publishers benefit from having a capacity to break down data silos and unify all identifiers (and the data signals used for ID enrichment). This opens up access – access to inventory for buyers, and to new revenue for publishers. It also allows for targeting across the broader ad ecosystem, while limiting wasted spend. 

A strategy that unifies data from relevant sources, and the ability to solve for identity, enhances a publisher’s value proposition to advertisers in CTV. It presents a great revenue opportunity for publishers. And delivering the value of actionable data insights is central to deepening long-term relationships with advertisers.

Making the most of the opportunity

At this stage of the CTV marketplace’s growth, there’s a real opportunity for any creator with quality video content. Therefore, publishers should be taking advantage of their video libraries. To fully capitalize on those advantages, they’ll need to be able to access and fully leverage the data that advertisers are looking for. 

Publishers who can bring both to CTV will be in a better position to weather economic unpredictability that may come to the digital media marketplace in coming months and years. Resilience hinges upon the ability to vary revenue sources, reach new audiences, and capitalize on an ever-expanding viewer base. And a strong data strategy, based on bringing together data from all relevant sources, will be key to truly realizing the revenue potential CTV holds. 

About the author

For over a decade Hunter has held and managed a variety of sales, consulting, and partnership positions in Advertising/Marketing Technology (#MADtech) throughout the US, Southeast Asia, and Australia. Currently based in Baltimore/DC after six years in the Asia Pacific, Hunter leads Lotame’s Connected TV initiative focusing on household graphing, viewership data partnerships, and data enrichment throughout various supply and demand channels.

Prior to his current role, Hunter led Lotame’s Global Solutions Consulting team solving leading marketer and publisher challenges through identity resolution and data enrichment methods. Additionally, Hunter has helped expand the Lotame Sales and Account Management teams in their Singapore and Sydney offices during his tenure in APAC.

Advertising | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight | Video

5 ways the writers’ and actors’ strike will impact advertising

On May 2nd, the Writers Guild of America (WGA), an alliance of over 11k film, TV, news, radio, and online writers went on strike demanding fair contracts and pay stability. They also stated numerous concerns surrounding artificial intelligence. In June 2023, 65k actors from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) cast their votes to join the strike in support of their colleagues and to protest how technology has affected their wages as well.

There is much talk about the impact the current entertainment industry strike will affect advertising. The truth is, we are just starting to see its influence. This is mostly due to the timing of the strike. Many scripted shows are on hiatus during the summer and typically advertising is purchased well in advance of their run dates. As the strike drags on, the impact will be keenly felt across much of the media industry. 

Here are five ways we will likely see the strike impact advertising’s bottom line.

A short strike may be a win for broadcasters and streamers

In the short term, broadcasters and streamers are likely to see a boost in their profits. While that may seem surprising on the surface, if the strike lasts under four months it’s a real possibility.

Broadcasters and streaming companies have already sold the advertising that will air during these months. Additionally, contractor and personnel costs declined sharply during the early months of the strike. Hopefully, these early profits are reinvested to buy up the rights to movies and content available for sale – as a way to shore up their audiences regardless of the strikes’ duration. 

However, broadcasters and streamers should be prepared with new inventory, so they don’t lose out to social media if the strike continues until early 2024, as many predict it will. They will want to avoid airing reruns instead of new content, since that will affect viewership and in turn advertising revenue will be lower.

Broadcasters will be hit hardest if the strike goes beyond six months

If the strike lasts only a few months, changes in ad spend may be limited. In the short term, we haven’t seen much of an impact on ad sales. However, if the strike goes beyond a few months, the largest TV broadcasters could be hit hardest. Relative to streaming channels, TV broadcasters have more content that’s prepared “just in time.” 

Unscripted television, like variety shows, reality shows, and game shows have not been impacted by the strike too much. However, we do see a hit to lucrative late-night talk shows, which have already been off the air for a couple of months. This programming relies on writers who have been on strike since early May. 

Prime time advertising is estimated at $13.1 billion during the first half of 2023, which makes up 50% of all national TV ad spend. If the strike is prolonged, we could easily see some weekly prime-time TV shows off the air after a few months of their Fall debuts, as a result of new episodes not being completed.

Media & entertainment advertising will suffer across media

Movies, streaming services, and TV shows (along with others that support the industry) invested over $3.9 billion from January through June 2023. This represents 39% of the total ad spend from media and entertainment advertisers ($10 billion). This estimated advertising investment reaches beyond just TV, to over a dozen media formats. Since the start of the strike, we saw a dip in May YoY (4%). However, in June this segment was already down 26% YoY.  As the strike continues, advertising to promote movies, shows, and streaming services will likely continue to decrease and shift in investment. 

A prolonged strike may even prompt the largest U.S. firms to move more English-language production outside the U.S., to work around the problem entirely. Many countries have none of the protections offered to SAG members in the U.S., offering a viable alternative to production companies. 

Streaming and social platforms may experience a resurgence due to the strike

Streaming channels have significant material pre-recorded, “in the can.” This gives them the  ability to release movies, mini-series, and documentaries. If they have new content while broadcasters are struggling to recreate fall lineups, streamers will benefit. Netflix’s CEO has already said they’ve been preparing for the strike for some time and will stretch out their new releases.

In the event of a longer strike, streaming channels can easily dub content from outside the U.S. and show it here. We saw this during the pandemic. For example, Netflix saw great success airing the South Korean survival drama, Squid Game in the US. Another example, and a personal favorite of mine, was the HBO produced sci-fi flick, Beforeigners. This show  was originally produced in Norway and was dubbed and placed in their U.S. lineup. 

We are also likely to see social video platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram benefit from a prolonged strike. Their content producers are independent and non-unionized so these platforms will not see a pause in content creation. Viewing hours could easily surge as they did during the pandemic, which will drive more advertising dollars away from traditional broadcasters and toward streaming and social platforms.

Sports and news content will be sold at even more of a premium

Broadcasters with sports rights could do well in this environment because sports content is likely to be one area that isn’t negatively affected by the strike. Broadcasters will likely lean into more active coverage of sports. And they can use the strike as ammunition to defend the high price of sports licensing fees. 

We also predict that news broadcasters will sell advertising at a premium as well. News broadcasters are covered by SAG, but they have their own separate contract. As a result, news programming and advertising supporting it will continue and may even expand. Media like CNBC, NPR, Bloomberg, etc. will be mostly unaffected.

While the full impact of the writers’ and actors’ strike is still very much uncertain, it is expected to result in notable alterations and realignments of advertising investment in the upcoming months. While some may experience short-term advantages due to reduced costs and pre-sold advertising, the long-term impact could profoundly impact advertising investment across media.

Advertising | Supporter Spotlight | Video

Tune in to CTV viewers advertising expectations

TV no longer occupies one screen. Viewers have redefined “TV” to encompass long-form, streaming, on-demand content consumption. Along with this shift comes a transformation in the audience’s advertising expectations. 

Capitalizing on the connected TV gold rush

With global revenues from ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) projected to reach $91 

billion in 2028, the allure of free ad-supported streaming has captivated more than half of US TV viewers. In this landscape, Connected TV (CTV) shines as the jewel of the advertising world, fueling the open programmatic CTV ad spend with its 31% year-on-year growth.

Boasting larger screens, higher resolutions, and sound quality, CTV empowers viewers to curate their content consumption- offering the ultimate viewing experience.

Although industry stakeholders acknowledge CTV’s potential, you can’t help but wonder: Do they fully understand the impact of poor advertising experiences on CTV? And is the industry prepared to safeguard brand integrity and guarantee high-quality ad experiences?

CTV viewers ad experience expectations 

CTV stakeholders can learn from past web/in-app programmatic pitfalls. According to our research at GeoEdge, 56% of consumers admitted that they immediately leave the site or close the app when they encounter a bad ad. Moreover, 73% of consumers claimed they would not recommend a site or app to their friends and family after encountering a bad ad. 

Audiences have made their needs clear: they demand a streamlined and non-intrusive ad experience. One of the reasons that viewers prefer CTV over traditional linear TV is because of the quality experience. Unlike web or in-app ad experiences–where users have grown accustomed to being bombarded with ads–CTV viewers approach the platform with a different mindset. They expect few, if any, ads. And they certainly don’t want to see offensive or disruptive ones. Oh, and they will quickly abandon ship if their expectations aren’t met.

CTV delivers what viewers desire, from the ability to skip ads to shorter durations and reduced ad frequency.

A lack of focus on programmatic transparency and brand safety could turn CTV advertising into a minefield of offensive and intrusive ad experiences. Sabotaging the viewing experience, instigating disengagement, negative brand perception, and even outright alienation from the platform. To secure viewer loyalty, it’s crucial to maintain the quality of ads and ensure they align with viewer preferences.

The complexities of co-viewing and shared screens

Addressing the complexities of shared screens and co-viewing poses a significant challenge when delivering relevant and engaging advertisements. The diversity in viewers’ preferences and age groups also introduces intricacies related to content restrictions and enforcing industry guidelines. The suitability of an ad for an individual viewer might not align with a diverse audience.

Inappropriate ads are not confined to X-rated content featuring explicit material. Ads showcasing distressing global news, natural disasters, contentious political content, or pharmaceutical promotions have the potential to disturb viewers. 

To preserve ad-supported experiences, it’s essential to maintain creative control, especially within the context of a shared screen. Preventing offensive content, explicit material, and sensitive ads is crucial to maintaining an environment suited to a wide range of audiences, including cross-generational and family-safe.

The playbook for engaging CTV ad experiences

Creating a safe and dependable ad environment that viewers can trust is tricky but certainly not impossible. By taking lessons from past mistakes in web and in-app ad experiences, CTV can not only ride the wave of growth but cement its foothold. Here are some guidelines that should help:

  • Implement strict filters for sensitive and controversial ad content.
  • Ensure compliance with child privacy laws and provide age-appropriate video content for younger viewers.
  • Carefully consider media specifications, such as ad duration and sound quality.
  • Secure the post-advertisement journey to keep a safe environment for viewers. For instance, interactive ads that use QR codes necessitate safety protocols that extend beyond the ad itself.

To maintain the integrity of the CTV viewing experience, it’s crucial the industry aligns with audience expectations for the ad experience. It’s time to think like a viewer. 

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