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Tags containing: "CTV"

Advertising | Industry-Research | Video

What neuroscience reveals about successful CTV ads

In the evolving advertising landscape, the shift from traditional linear television to digital platforms offers new ways for marketers to reach their audiences. However, while advertisers have new tools and techniques to target audiences, viewers are confronted with ads that disrupt their viewing experience, feel irrelevant, or annoy them. And new research uses neuroscience to demonstrate how context and tone affect advertising’s impact in CTV environments.  

Integral Ad Science (IAS) and Neuro-Insight’s new study, The Mind on the Stream, explores how advertisers can enhance the relevance of their CTV ads through tone and context. The research shows an increase of 14% in brand impact when the ads match the tone of the content viewed on CTV. Ads that match the context of the content experience show a significant boost in brand impact, +39%. Moreover, ads that match tone and context result in a greater significant increase of 49% in brand impact.

Matching advertising with content’s tone and context

The study includes a cohort of 137 participants in a controlled environment simulating an ad-supported streaming experience. All participants watch the same program content. During this simulated streaming experience, participants see 20 ads from 20 known brands across various verticals, including food/beverage, telecommunications, entertainment, finance, and consumer packaged goods (CPG). The ads vary in terms of length and narrative style.

The research tests the ads in two ways: tone/context and frequency.

Group 1 participants undergo tone and context variations, where some ads match the show’s context, some match its tone, and some match both tone and context.

  • Tone matches when advertisers ensure that their ads align with the overall feeling or voice of the content they accompany. In this study, since the program content is humorous, the research examines the impact of running ads that are also humorous.
  • Context matches when there’s a thematic or tangible connections between an ad and the program content. For instance, if the show features basketball, a contextually matched ad would also incorporate basketball elements.

Group 2 participants encounter different ad frequencies, with some ads appearing once, twice, three times, or four times during the program.

The study includes several metrics to measure the impact between Group 1 and Group 2 exposures.

  • Detailed memory measures ad memorability and brand impact by analyzing how well viewers retain specific details from the ads.
  • Emotional intensity gauges the emotional impact of the ads on viewers, with high scores indicating a strong emotional connection.
  • Global memory assesses how well viewers remember the visual, audio, and thematic elements.
  • Engagement measures the personal relevance of ad content to viewers.
  • Approach/Withdraw identifies the “lean in” or “I want to learn more” response from viewers, indicating likeability and overall positivity or negativity towards the ads.

Ad frequency

Interestingly, viewers overall show lower interest in ads repeated multiple times on CTV. However, ads that align with the video content mitigate the negative impact of repetition and perform better among viewers despite increased frequency. While brand impact remains consistent through the third viewing of a CTV ad, the fourth viewing results in a significant decline of 26%. This emphasizes the importance of limiting ad frequency to three viewings to preserve viewer connection and comprehension.

Advertisers and streaming publishers can optimize their ad strategies and drive better results when matching ad tone and context with the content viewed on CTV. The study also underscores the critical role of ad frequency in viewer engagement. By embracing contextual targeting, marketers and publishers have an opportunity to shift ad budgets and deliver impactful results in the digital advertising landscape.

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.

Perspectives | Video

How video providers can create a compelling CTV ad experience

Audiences can now choose from a veritable buffet of advanced TV channels. Viewers can feast on their favorite shows via broadcaster catch-up services, online social video aggregators, free ad-supported streaming services (FASTs) and Smart TV apps, video-on-demand, and addressable linear. According to the recent Streaming Video: CTV Uncovered 2023 study from  AudienceXpress, 46% of UK connected TV (CTV) viewers surveyed also tuck into free streaming platforms daily to watch content.

So, how can broadcasters and premium video providers ensure the advertising experience captures these viewers’ attention? The latest consumer insights from AudienceXpress reveal current audience preferences to inform best practice; here are the biggest takeaways from the full study.

What’s on the CTV menu for UK audiences?

Understanding viewing habits is imperative for premium video providers when creating their content offerings. Almost U.K. CTV participants in the AudienceXpress study, for instance, state they watch more free ad-supported streaming platforms than live broadcast TV. To capture this audience, some broadcasters are diversifying their business models to include different platforms and models.

Viewers appear to prioritize accessing premium content over using specific platforms or channels; 59% of UK CTV audiences surveyed tune in to free on-demand platforms, including FASTs, when nothing on traditional TV channels grabs their interest. While these ad-supported advanced TV platforms are rapidly gaining traction among viewers, it is important to note that the AudienceXpress study also found that broadcasters’ live TV (37%) and catch-up services (35%) continue to attract a significant proportion of viewers, reaffirming that the main driver of platform success is content. As such, media buyers are looking to connect with viewers across all touchpoints, with advanced TV channels enabling them to drive incremental reach and capture the attention of elusive audiences.

Sharing personal data leaves a bitter taste for many viewers

According to the Streaming Video: CTV Uncovered 2023 study, only 26% 26 U.K. respondents with a CTV screen are comfortable sharing their personal data with brands in exchange for more personalised TV advertising. Data sharing seems to be on top of mind for U.K. viewers. (This could possibly be a ripple effect from major web browsers’ removal of third-party cookies.) Although this shift does not impact the TV and premium video advertising ecosystem directly, it requires media owners to keep privacy-conscious viewers front of mind when refining their advertising operations.

Audiences’ views on data privacy will continue to shape the future of premium video advertising and many remain cautious about how their data is used. For this reason, TV and premium video providers need to uphold audience trust. They can do this by being transparent about data practices. They must also clarify why advertising is critical for making premium content more accessible to video-hungry viewers and for funding new, quality productions, as well as leveraging data to cook up a compelling and relevant advertising experience.

With that in mind, which elements of advertising resonate best with U.K. CTV viewers?

Create an appetizing ad experience

Despite being apprehensive about sharing data, audiences still appreciate some degree of targeted advertising. Almost one third (32%) of U.K. CTV participants in the AudienceXpress study prefer ads that harmonize with the context of the content they watch, one in four prefer ads based on their geolocation, and one in five like ads relevant to their personal interests.

Capturing attention could likely be the ad industry’s top priority as many advertising environments become saturated. In fact, ad volume can make or break the viewing experience with seven in 10 UK CTV respondents feeling there are too many ads on social video aggregators. It is important that TV and premium video providers continue to carefully manage their ad volumes using advanced digital capabilities to further enhance the advertising experience through frequency capping and ad podding.

Nearly six in 10 U.K. CTV respondents also affirm that when accessing free premium video and TV-like content on their CTV screen, they would prefer pre-roll style ads with no ad breaks afterwards. It is necessary for TV and premium video providers to account for this and balance sustaining a quality ad experience with helping advertisers meet their KPIs and attracting greater spend.

In addition, almost three-quarters of these CTV viewers surveyed indicate that they pay more attention to advertising on premium on-demand TV platforms compared to social media or video aggregators. Through ensuring their advertising experience is contextually relevant and features long-form ads with high-impact creative, TV and premium video providers can secure high levels of attention that increase the value of their inventory.

As the advertising landscape is rapidly evolving, TV and premium video providers need to continually taste-test how their advertising experiences and business models align with audience habits. With in-depth insights of the current market, they can plate up successful offerings that meet the expectations of viewers and media buyers, define best practices for advanced TV advertising, and secure an essential valuable delicacy — audience attention.

Advertising | Perspectives | Supporter Spotlight | Video

Technology moves fast. Automation helps publishers keep up

Technology is an essential tool for enabling efficiency in today’s fast-paced media landscape. This is especially true of new media platforms—including retail media networks, connected TV (CTV), and streaming services—whose rapid growth has left publishers with little time to reevaluate and optimize their ad monetization processes. Most of these platforms are utilizing legacy ad ops processes as a result, the majority of which are highly manual and not suited for the pace of digital media.

The consequences of this trend have led to mounting challenges for publishers, including delivery delays, higher error rates, increased makegoods, and slower revenue recognition processes. To eliminate these inefficiencies and enable growth at scale, publishers must leverage automation. If your business struggles to keep pace with the rapid evolution of new media and ad revenue models, here’s how automation can help you streamline your manual workflows and future-proof your ad ops processes.

Out with the old, in with the new

The ad ops processes that have worked for long-standing, traditional publishers cannot meet the needs of today’s modern digital media players. They need to be run continuously to keep up with rapidly evolving ad revenue models, which is challenging because they employ time-consuming manual processes such as audience targeting and data analysis.

Unfortunately, many media players continue to adopt these legacy workflows because they have been the norm for so long and are the path of least resistance. But this is simply not sustainable. The demand for targeted audience reach, coupled with the speed at which these platforms are growing, means that workflow inefficiencies will only increase. At the same time, ad ops teams are put at a major disadvantage because they typically work on parallel campaigns across multiple platforms and ad servers. This creates siloed and fragmented data and makes tracking and analyzing campaign metrics extremely difficult.

Automating manual processes is the key to eliminating workflow inefficiencies and increasing productivity. It’s also essential for enabling career growth and professional development. When ad ops teams use automation to relieve members of repetitive and menial tasks such as data entry and reporting, they can turn their attention to the higher-value jobs that require strategic thought and therefore can only be carried out by human beings. Rather than seeing automation as a threat to job security, it can be viewed as a tool for skill expansion and professional growth.

Using automation to support the foundational needs of media companies

The benefits that both new media and traditional publishers can gain from automation are plentiful and help support three foundational needs:

  • Unity. Automation can integrate internal platforms, improve communication between teams, eliminate data silos, and enhance data visibility.
  • Performance. Automation can streamline manual tasks to reduce errors, makegoods, and delivery delays. It can also boost campaign performance and improve client satisfaction by allowing campaigns to be optimized in flight.
  • Guidance. Automation can be used to develop user-friendly systems that improve internal knowledgeability, as well as create platforms that notify teams of potential errors so they can troubleshoot before mistakes occur.

Automation also helps increase profits by allowing teams to focus on revenue-boosting activities like business growth strategy and client management. It frees them up to run more campaigns, which is a win-win for everyone: Advertisers appreciate the maximized brand exposure, and publishers benefit from the incremental revenue. Finally, automating order-to-cash processes allows for quicker invoicing, which means faster revenue recognition and more cash to reinvest into new business initiatives.

The time to automate is now

While the current economy has forced all industries to do more with less, efficiency has always been a necessity for publishers. Now that advertising has become a key revenue model for new media players, it’s essential for them to leverage technology to enable productivity and scale. The time to automate is now, as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation tech become more accessible and affordable. Publishers — especially new media players like retail media networks and CTV companies — must take advantage of this time to implement automation or risk getting left in the dust.

Advertising | Perspectives | Supporter Spotlight

TV advertising has evolved. It’s time to think like a viewer

The advanced TV landscape—including video-on-demand (VOD), connected TV (CTV), OTT and addressable linear TV—has experienced rapid growth and change. We’re also seeing the rise of ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) and free ad-supported streaming services (FAST). As a result, more premium video inventory is becoming available to ad buyers. Luckily, innovation within the advertising ecosystem is beginning to make this more accessible. So, what’s up next for this evolving space?

Seven in 10 UK marketers believe their advanced TV budgets will increase in the coming 12 months, according to the latest survey from AudienceXpress, FreeWheel’s premium video sales house. What’s more, almost nine in 10 respondents intend to spend more on AVOD and FAST.

Ad buyers are investing in the channels where the eyeballs are. But now the industry must go a step further and truly think as audiences do. Content, quality, and connectivity appear to be front of mind for viewers. So, how can marketers also make these a priority?

Audiences only have eyes for content, so ad buyers should too

When viewers tune in to TV and premium video content, they can now access it through a diverse selection of platforms, channels, and devices. The fact that audiences have become more and more fragmented proves that what they watch is significantly more important than how they watch it. 

If ad buyers plan to succeed in the TV advertising landscape, they need to adopt this attitude. By taking a unified approach to advanced TV and premium video, they can shift their focus away from fragmented endpoints and towards what matters most: the audience and what they enjoy watching. To help buyers achieve this, the advertising ecosystem is refining its tools for unified campaign planning, ad buying, and performance measurement. 

New technologies and best practices, such as ad podding, are improving both efficiencies for buyers and the premium video experience for viewers. Advanced contextual advertising, meanwhile, is allowing buyers to connect with audiences through specific topics and genres, as well as combine semantic analysis and keyword targeting to maximize ad relevance. 

While further collaboration is required to accelerate this progress, advanced TV is enabling advertisers to engage typically hard-to-reach audiences through quality content.

Why aggregation is the answer to precise ad targeting

The key drivers of advanced TV spend emphasize marketers’ goal of reaching the best viewers however they consume TV and premium video content. Our AudienceXpress survey found that respondents considered sophisticated audience targeting capabilities as the top growth accelerator for advanced TV, followed by the opportunity to reach viewers across screens. 

Enabling precise ad targeting and allowing buyers to be agile as their audiences move between platforms and devices are therefore highly important for capturing investment. While it may seem paradoxical, aggregation is necessary for this to happen. By aggregating a bigger pool of premium video inventory, the advertising ecosystem can facilitate efficient, streamlined ad buying and deliver desired audiences at scale. 

This again requires buyers and sellers to treat advanced TV channels as viewers do—that is, equally—as they unify their approach to TV advertising. 

Joining the measurement dots

Consolidating measurement across endpoints is as critical to the future of TV advertising as consolidating inventory and audiences. Buyers need a single view of how impactful their ad campaigns are, both while they are running and after they are wrapped up, much like any great TV show. 

Unfortunately, legacy measurement tools and newer alternatives currently struggle with capturing performance across screens and providing ad buyers with a full understanding of campaign impact. Buyers need this to pinpoint the elements of their strategies that are generating the best results and carry out informed campaign optimizations. Additionally, accurate measurement solutions are necessary for effective frequency management, which safeguards against ad fatigue and maintains the quality viewing experience for audiences. 

Greater standardization of advertising metrics is a crucial next step towards unifying measurement. This provides clarity between buyers and sellers, allowing the former to plan, purchase, and optimize all forms of TV inventory and the latter to better communicate the value of their offerings. 

Connectivity will solve complexity 

Speaking the same language across the ecosystem also lays the foundation for better interconnectivity between all players. In turn, this will help tackle complexity, which has become a concern in the rapidly evolving advanced TV landscape. 

Alongside building a shared language, interoperability must be a priority in the year ahead. Technological innovation is critical for overcoming the challenges buyers face with planning, executing, and monitoring advanced TV campaigns. But ensuring these innovative solutions are widely compatible will help make TV and premium video advertising available to all. This will drive growth and progress throughout the ecosystem, letting buyers purchase from bigger pools of aggregated inventory, increase efficiency, and extend their reach, while also allowing publishers to streamline their advertising business models and maximize yield. 

Connectivity is enabling viewers to consume TV and premium video content how they want, when they want. It is also the key to enabling ad buyers to purchase the inventory they want, how they want. Not only is this beneficial to the future of advanced TV advertising, but also to audiences by ensuring they receive the most relevant ads and a quality viewing experience.

Featured Post | Perspectives

Get smart, TV: Fix the usability experience

Do you have more than one remote to operate various connected and streaming devices?

Among your family members, are there as many different streaming habits and preferences as there are people? And do these disparate behaviors lead, for instance, to heated arguments over whether captions should always be on and who’s responsible for turning them on and off?

Have you rented someone else’s home for a short stay recently? If so, could you log in and start using your streaming services on the TV? Within five minutes? After multiple emails with the host?

For all the joy that streaming “Stranger Things” and “Abbott Elementary” has brought us, the user experience of Smart TVs and connected devices has delivered far too much frustration. The mere act of turning on the TV to find something to watch is an inexcusably disastrous viewer experience—a complete fail on the part of the television industry.

Unfortunately, the proliferation of streaming services has not improved viewers’ TV usability experience. In fact, it seems exponentially worse. This is despite 81% of consumers citing “ease of use” as the second-most important attribute for video streaming, close behind “cost” at 84%, according to a 2020 Nielsen study. If streaming service providers and device manufacturers spent as much time improving the viewer usability experience as they spend building pricing models, perhaps they wouldn’t be forced to continuously raise prices.

While I think we’d all agree that there are much bigger problems in this world, viewer frustration with streaming service features and connected devices illustrates how much the TV industry takes its customers for granted. Sure, some products are arguably better than others. And right now, there’s probably someone making the argument somewhere that their supposedly excellent usability is a competitive advantage. And though there are some excellent products out there, there is considerable room for companies to improve the viewer usability experience and to gain loyalty and attention for the entire sector.

Let’s examine a few areas in need of improvement:

The multiple remote e-waste factor

First, proliferation of different and incompatible remotes is rampant. This is not a new issue with the streaming era, but it is now even more difficult to solve. Universal remotes notoriously challenge even the most tech-savvy and usually end up taking space in a drawer. In fact, many people have drawers full of extra, old and broken remotes, exemplifying the wastefulness of this sector of consumer devices.

Perhaps we need a new way of looking at this particular frustration, beyond the fact that it’s hard for consumers to navigate. So, let’s look at a similar issue in which an entity made a decision intended to minimize e-waste long-term: In June, the EU mandated the use by 2026 of a common charger for all new portable devices such as smartphones, earbuds, wireless keyboards and laptops. The argument could be made that mandating even a baseline of standardization for TV and streaming device remotes would minimize e-waste. Which government wants to take it on?

The personalized feature set

Second, personalizing one’s TV experience, within the operating system navigation, is ridiculously complex. Because this topic is vast, let’s look at just one example – turning captions on and off. Nothing exemplifies the lack of care for the TV viewer more than the inaccessibility of captions, especially given that the original purpose of the caption feature is … accessibility!

In one family I surveyed, one person likes to always have captions on. This preference is not due a hearing issue. Rather, this person believes captions or subtitles augment their understanding of a show, especially while they simultaneously are playing a video game on their laptop and scrolling TikTok on their phone.

This sort of use case is hardly uncommon. In fact, four out of five viewers ages 18-25 say they use subtitles all or part of the time according to one study. Meanwhile, within the family surveyed, other members complain that captions ruin their experience, often revealing a joke or a plot twist before it happens on screen.

The difference in preferences means that family members sharing the same TV and streaming services must frequently turn captions on and off. If you’ve tried to do this at all, you know that every service and device is different. If you haven’t tried yet, please do just to see how needlessly complex it is.

As we know, the lack of standardization for caption functions is the same lack of standardization for everything from start to fast forwarding to volume functions. It’s all unnecessarily complex and frustrating for the consumer.

The unfamiliar TV panic

Third, the issue of standardization goes beyond consumers’ own homes. Based on my recent unscientific, informal survey of a half dozen short-term rental property hosts and their guests, struggles with unfamiliar remotes and/or TV operating systems are one of the top sources of friction between hosts and guests. This applies to those young and old, tech-savvy or not.

One guest called his host frequently, complaining that the TV was broken. In fact, the TV worked just fine, but the guest was flummoxed by the Apple TV remote, despite several lessons. The guest is still complaining about the host’s Apple TV, although he has moved on to another short-term rental property (and despite the fact that this TV-challenged property was a beautifully designed home in an idyllic natural setting).

Another host described a guest who emailed a half dozen times in advance of his arrival, concerned about how he would watch TV. He asked for photos of both the front and back of the TV and a detailed assessment of whether he’d be able to plug in an antenna to watch local TV. After his arrival, this guest complained that he found the remote “awkward.” The host described losing sleep over whether this guest would write a bad Airbnb review solely based on his TV experience.

The bottom line is that both hosts and guests clearly would appreciate a TV experience that just works, easily, without instructions. And they really don’t want to have to communicate with one another about it. By setting a new baseline common standard for TVs and streaming services, the industry could perhaps improve the rental home industry’s host-guest relations – and help the rest of us at the same time.

Let’s fix the consumer experience

Forget for a moment some of the common complaints about today’s streaming industry, such as too many mediocre shows or ideas that should have been 90-minute movies but are needlessly stretched to seven-part series. Given all the investment in Smart TV technology, and all of the money to be made from distributing content via that technology, the industry would benefit from providing viewers with a much better experience. For what we are paying, we certainly deserve it.

We should have more standardized devices, accessible navigation interfaces, excellent search capabilities across devices and services, and more. Achieving this would require some cooperation among the major players. But primarily, it would require that the players start to care about their customers. It’s evident that they don’t.

Advertising | Perspectives | Supporter Spotlight

Fulfilling the buy-side wish list with connected TV

Connected TV (CTV) includes a wide range of video on demand (VOD) platforms, free ad-supported streaming services, and a growing number of channels that viewers primarily use to enjoy long-form premium video content. Ad buyers increasingly direct their spend towards the eyeballs watching CTV. However, to capture this investment, media owners and broadcasters must deliver everything on marketers’ wish lists.

From data-driven targeting and incremental reach to frequency capping and efficiency, how can sell-side players become the fairy godparents of CTV by making sure buyers’ wishes come true? 

Targeting: tailor that ball gown

Much like a ball gown, ads need to fit — and fit well. A recent consumer study from FreeWheel and Happydemics uncovered that almost two-fifths of CTV viewers surveyed like ads related to their personal interests. And more than a quarter prefer ads that reflect their lifestyle. 

The sell-side can help marketers tailor their ads by supporting advanced targeting methods. Gone are the days when TV campaigns were planned on ratings alone. CTV now makes the same household screen addressable and many elements such as age, gender, time of day, geolocation, device data, and more can inform ad targeting. 

As the custodians of user information and contextual data, media owners can enable buyers to better personalize their ads based on audience behaviors and content preferences. Doing so heightens the value of CTV inventory and enhances the viewing experience with stronger relevance.

Geo filters: the glass slipper must fit perfectly

To help marketers win over viewers and plan the most effective campaigns, the sell side must balance relevance and scale when it comes to targeting. CTV environments can place brands in front of a broad audience. But it’s essential to consider if they are high intent consumers and how receptive they are to specific messages.

The ability to purchase inventory that can be targeted with geo filters addresses this issue by letting buyers pinpoint regional audience segments. It also helps ensure relevance through location. A footwear brand, for example, could use this to boost in-store traffic from local audiences, especially if combined with a new product release stocked in their brick-and-mortar stores. 

Efficiency: from a pumpkin into a coach 

Increasing efficiency for ad buyers gets them to their objectives quickly and in style. Enabling marketers to make the most of CTV’s data-driven targeting methods allows them to deliver cost-effective campaigns, as media owners’ viewer data can enrich audience segmentation. Buyers can purchase the best inventory for connecting with specific consumers and get better mileage for their ad spend, generating stronger impact while reducing waste. 

What’s more, broadcasters that unify their linear TV and VOD inventory will make an appealing proposition for ad buyers. In the FreeWheel x CoLab Media Consulting 2022 study, the marketers surveyed consider the ability to purchase ad slots for both linear and Advanced TV — which encompasses CTV, streaming and on-demand services — in one transaction as a key driver for their investment. 

Incremental reach: the more, the merrier

Another reason behind the growth of Advanced TV budgets, according to the marketer study, is the opportunity it gives buyers to extend linear TV’s reach. The sell-side can ensure CTV is highly effective for cross-channel marketing by bringing connected and linear TV together. 

As the media landscape becomes more and more fragmented, it’s easy to think that newer channels will replace traditional ones. However, linear TV continues to account for 58% of consumers’ time spent with video. This highlights the importance of buyers being able to leverage the optimal mix of channels to boost incremental reach and deliver on their campaign goals, alongside the need for media owners to unite their inventory and streamline the transaction process. 

Frequency: don’t keep asking for the next dance

According to FreeWheel’s consumer study, nearly two-thirds of respondents who watch CTV believe premium video platforms are home to the most attention-grabbing advertising experiences. Audiences claim to enjoy CTV’s big screen and quality content, and media owners are responsible for maintaining the viewer experience. 

Frequency capping is critical here, because persistently serving the same ads will lead to audiences losing interest. Through enabling marketers to set a frequency cap not only at a household level, but also across channels, sell side players can remove the risk of ad fatigue. This improves campaign effectiveness for buyers while ensuring viewers continue to enjoy CTV environments, so media owners can keep everyone happy. 

A fairy tale ending

CTV attracts highly receptive audiences and delivers a quality advertising experience. That said, the sell-side can leverage its digital-equivalent capabilities to make it an even more enticing prospect for ad buyers.

Marketers are expecting CTV platforms to unite linear TV’s reach with advanced targeting and efficient media trading methods. By supporting buyers with techniques such as frequency capping, geo filters and ad personalization, media owners can help make their wishes come true in their quest to optimize campaigns.

Advertising | Supporter Spotlight

Third-party CTV data isn’t just for advertisers

Connected TV (CTV) is rapidly gaining traction. The digital industry has seen this coming for a while; in fact, after years of growing adoption, CTV has accelerated into the forefront of media consumption as consumers’ preferred streaming device. 

What’s more, ad-supported CTV has captured audiences, with IAS research finding that 91% of CTV users watch some form of ad supported streaming video content. So, as CTV swiftly surpasses linear as the most popular way to view television, advertisers want a piece of the pie — understandably so. As a powerful medium when it comes to connecting with consumers, it remains crucial for advertisers to ensure their ads have the opportunity to be seen and heard, which, unfortunately, can be a shortcoming of first-party CTV metrics.

When it comes to capitalizing on the valuable CTV inventory you have available, cutting-edge measurement matters. Here’s why.

Advertisers want premium inventory — but they also want transparency.

CTV is compelling. Not only does this format offer a dynamic sight, sound, and motion experience for consumers, but it also consists of premium content that allows consumers to choose what to view and when to view it. With all of these benefits, it’s no wonder why advertisers want to get their hands on CTV placements.

However, despite the benefits and popularity of CTV, there’s a roadblock preventing advertisers from buying this inventory: the first-party data that publishers often provide to advertisers simply isn’t enough. 

So why does measurement matter so much in CTV? For publishers, working with third-party verification providers can be the key to maximizing the amount of advertisers who want your premium, valuable inventory. Why is that? Because advertisers want to see where their ad spend is going — and that includes the comprehensive, granular metrics that go along with it. Advertisers are more inclined to purchase inventory if they’re able to determine who saw their ads, how long the consumer viewed the ads, and at what scale the ad was viewed.

Data provides transparency, and transparency is key to enticing advertisers who have money to spend. But it’s not the only advancement that advertisers are looking for in CTV.

How are advertisers using incremental reach?

Advertisers are seeing greater value in the incremental reach CTV can offer. This placement strategy gives marketers the ability to target unique consumers that they simply cannot reach through other screens and mediums. But what does this mean for publishers?

As advertisers sharpen their focus on incremental reach, they want to know exactly who is watching their ads. If an advertiser knows they’ve already reached a certain consumer, they want the ability to choose to target them again on premium, and pricier, CTV inventory. 

On the other hand, if an advertiser knows they can reach a certain consumer or demographic via less expensive placements on traditional TV, they may want to explore that option. Ultimately, marketers are looking for transparency and control to determine what frequency and budget allocation is best for their digital strategies.

And how can advertisers know who exactly they’ve targeted? It’s all in the data. 

With today’s CTV technology, publishers need to provide a delivery system that’s able to feed back into audience management to let the advertiser know who they’ve reached, at what cost, and how many ads they’ve delivered to them.

Publishers — measurement matters for you too.

You may have heard this tagline thrown around the industry: “Data is the new oil.” And it’s true. Data, especially in CTV, tells advertisers exactly where their ad spend is going, and it’s crucial to provide exhaustive, meticulously measured data in order to provide transparency and increase trust among advertisers.

Simply put, publishers need to properly leverage their first-party data for advertisers to confidently invest in premium CTV placements. Publishers who focus on data-driven CTV monetization in partnership with third-party measurement have the greatest opportunity to increase revenue — and actually report on the uplift. 

Industry-Research

Advertisers should be watching CTV

As consumers find their way to connected TV (CTV) content, so do marketers. CTV and streaming products help media companies extend their content reach and tap into a strong-growing demand for content. To that end, we’re witnessing the rise of AVOD and FAST services, which broaden the reach of streaming beyond the premium content consumer. While consumers benefit from lower-cost alternatives, advertisers are keen to capitalize on a broader consumer base.

Attractive marketplace

Advertisers see a significant advantage in CTV as it combines the value of television engagement with the precision of digital buying and targeting. The ads are usually not skippable, appear in regular ad breaks, and are indistinguishable from cable television ads in production quality. 

eMarketer forecasts 204.1 million connected TV users, representing 60.1% of the population this year. They also project CTV ad revenues to increase 35% to $6.41 billion this year from upfront sales and to grow another 35% to $8.14 billion in 2023.

In fact, a new survey by Advertiser Perceptions and Premion reports that 66% of advertisers are shifting budgets from digital, social, and linear TV to fund CTV/OTT spend increases.

Quality, volume, and device

CTV streaming content is in the early stages of developing effective optimization for programmatic inventory. Peer39, an intelligence platform for contextual targeting and analytics, offers insight into CTV’s inventory quality. Their Programmatic CTV Benchmark report provides an additional level of transparency to better understand how CTV campaigns compare to the rest of the industry. 

The Q1 2022 report found that fake CTV content accounted for 4.43% of all ad calls. Fake content is content that doesn’t fit the scope of TV content. It’s likely to be screensaver channels, photo widgets, games, and mobile. Peer39 found the largest share of fake CTV content was among mobile apps pretending to be CTV streaming content in programmatic marketplaces. Approximately 2% to 18.5% of CTV inventory ran on fake content and about 13% of total impression volume per campaign ran on user-generated and non-professionally produced content. 

The programmatic CTV market is run primarily on three key devices, with Roku, Amazon Fire, and Samsung accounting for nine out of ten impressions. Not surprisingly, CTV is a medium for series and movies, and to a lesser extent, live tv for sports and news. 

Regarding the top OTT services by impression volume, Pluto TV stands above all, accounting for 59% of total impressions in open programmatic auctions. Hulu, Sling, and Viacom’s EyeQ only account for 2% of impressions, each.

Effective ad market

According to ExchangeWire, CTV streaming advertising is proving to be more effective than traditional TV advertising, as CTV viewers are 42% more likely to buy advertised products because of the ads viewed. Importantly, content players have insight into what viewers watch, when, and how often. Extracting data in a privacy-compliant manner is essential for profiling and targeting a valuable CTV audience.

The combination of digital reach and television content makes CTV streaming ad inventory especially valuable to marketers looking to reach broad audiences. It allows media companies to attract younger audiences of cord-cutters and “cord-never” consumers, the early adopters of CTV platforms. It presents an additional advertising route for media organizations and uses their first-party data and contextual insight to reinforce the value of video monetization. 

Advertising | Industry-Research | Supporter Spotlight

Europe’s CTV audience is switched on for ads

Connected TV (CTV) audiences in Europe seem to have embraced streaming as their go-to destination for video entertainment, where they enjoy a wealth of content from a diverse set of providers. While subscription-based offerings have long dominated the landscape, ad supported services are gaining traction, delivering new user experiences as well as opportunities for brands. 

In collaboration with market research company Happydemics, FreeWheel surveyed CTV viewers across the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands (the “EU6”) to understand their preferences and how advertisers can tap into the connected audience.

Smart TV tops connection methods

The popularity and convenience of Smart TVs has led them to be the primary method of connecting to internet video throughout the EU6, with one notable exception. In France — where telco and pay TV operators have held strong — set-top boxes are the favored connection method, used by 72% of the French CTV viewers surveyed. On the other end of the scale, our study found that 86% of CTV viewers in Italy connect via Smart TVs, well above the EU6 average of 60%.

The popularity of premium and ad-supported options

As for what they watch once they are connected, long-form premium video content reigns supreme, with the majority (59%) of respondents using at least one subscription video on demand (SVOD) service. On average, EU6 CTV viewers surveyed spread their attention across 3.5 different streaming platforms, including SVOD, ad-supported video on demand (AVOD), broadcaster video on demand (BVOD) and live TV, showing that consumers are willing to switch between apps to find what they want.

However, when it comes to SVOD, there may be a point at which viewers reach “subscription saturation.” In fact, free ad supported tv services (FAST) are gaining in popularity. According to the survey, free streaming platforms, such as Pluto.TV and Molotov TV, see the highest uptake among viewers who subscribe to multiple paid services.

AVOD users come for the price, stay for the content

As SVOD giants Netflix and Disney+ tease their ad-supported tiers, EU6 CTV viewers surveyed are warming up to AVOD, with adoption by our connected respondents nearing two-fifths (38%). Consumers seem content with the trade-off of watching ads in exchange for content. In fact, 60% of these users said that free access was, unsurprisingly, the biggest appeal of such services. However, more than a third (36%) were won over by the variety and quality of content on offer.

With no cost barrier, we might expect audiences to dip in and out of AVOD. But those who try it tend to stick around, with over two-thirds of CTV viewers surveyed (68%) accessing ad-supported video every week, half of whom do so daily. AVOD appears to slip seamlessly into viewing schedules. This bodes well for platforms big and small exploring this new frontier of content monetization.

Big-screen ads grab attention best

Advertisers seeking to capitalize on CTV will be reassured to know that TV ad experience is considered the most effective by the vast majority (64%) of EU6 CTV viewers surveyed, with little variation between regions. In the age of distraction, attention-grabbing, big-screen ads provide an opportunity to maximize campaign impact.

One advantage of CTV is the ability to personalize ads for the viewer, and EU6 respondents were generally receptive to this. When asked which type of personalization they prefer: 37% chose ads related to their personal interests, 30% related to their lifestyle, and 23% for brands or products in line with their values, such as sustainability. While the EU6 CTV audience is accepting of ad personalization, they are not accepting of their personal data being used to achieve it, as stated by 62% of respondents.

Time to unlock CTV ad potential

Advertisers go where their audiences are, and in the EU6 countries they can be found enjoying premium video streamed via Connected TV. So, there is real potential to harness CTV platforms for campaigns, particularly when you look at the apparent shift of bigger SVOD players towards ad-supported models and concerns over subscription fatigue.

Normalizing AVOD should be good for viewers, platforms, and advertisers alike. Viewers get to try content with no upfront cost, while content platforms can compete on quality rather than price. Advertisers, meanwhile, would be able to target their ad spend and creative to key demographics, while having the potential to reach new audiences; all thanks to CTV’s “superpower” – the ability to combine the best attributes of TV and digital video in one place.

Advertising | Perspectives | Supporter Spotlight

Winners from the CTV boom to be decided by early measurement adoption

All forms of digital video advertising are growing rapidly. According to the IAB, the digital video channel has grown over 50% since last year. This is largely being driven by the surge of users who are now enjoying a variety of streaming and digital video offerings online, with CTV being the most recent beneficiary. And with Nextflix planning to get in on the game with an AVOD offering, this space is only going to get hotter.

Brands hoping to reach these audiences are spending more than ever. But continued growth relies on transparency and measurement becoming a core pillar of how these channels operate. Publishers looking to capture higher CPMs and brands seeking increased exposure through CTV and video must advance measurement efforts to improve optimization opportunities and performance.

Online video measurement shows the path CTV must take

Some progress has been made on the measurement front. Through VAST, and later VPAID and Open Measurement development, new measurement standards and tools have become available that improve performance and revenue. While there is still more work to be done, it’s clear that measurement has helped this channel mature to drive results for buyers and sellers.

The measurement challenges for CTV are not new. As we’ve seen with online video over the past decade, measurability improvements have led to ad performance gains over time, benefiting buyers and sellers alike. If history were to repeat itself, publishers benefit most when they expand their tech stack and data tools to benefit from improved measurement as it becomes available.

CTV limitations highlight opportunity for publisher adoption

While millions of users flock to CTV, the industry is building out the required infrastructure to ensure additional advertising inflows. One of these has been particularly difficult to implement: viewability.

VPAID, which enables viewability measurement in online video, is still not fully adopted by the industry. Less than 40% of desktop and mobile impressions support VPAID and it is not supported at all on CTV, mostly due to its own limitations that the industry wants to move away from. New standards for viewability such as Open Measurement are not yet supportive of CTV as a channel. We’re working on this, through tools like Fully On-Screen measurement, which is designed to help buyers more roughly understand whether their ads are actually being seen. However, is more work to be done before brands feel comfortable moving large portions of their budgets to CTV.

Case Study:
How audibility and viewability work together to improve ad recall and brand awareness

As just one example to illustrate how measurement advances can benefit the industry, let’s look into the case of audibility measurement for video advertising. A Google study based on YouTube indicated that an audible and viewable ad saw a 1.6x improvement in brand awareness over an ad that is only viewable, and a 3.8x improvement over an ad that is only audible.

Given these results and what we’re hearing from clients, we’ve learned how audibility measurement can improve publisher revenue when it’s properly taken into account and optimized against. By expanding access to these metrics in alongside CTV metrics such as fully on-screen insights, buyers and sellers can expand the shared language of data that accomplishes performance and revenue goals.

In these nascent stages of measurement innovation on new channels, publishers have an opportunity to provide value to brands looking to feel more secure in their ad spend. Whether it’s through fully on-screen measurement, audibility or other metrics, publishers can begin optimizing performance today.

In DoubleVerify’s work with advertisers and publishers, we are developing more video-level transparency for toolkits on both sides of the industry. Since standardization is set to follow new measurement technology, buyers will look to these tools as a way of measuring KPIs. Instead of waiting for this to take place, proactive teams can use these tools to improve ad quality and performance before the competition.

Advertising | Industry-Research

Streaming drives this year’s upfronts

The buzz this upfront season is all about streaming. As Tim Peterson at Digiday put it, “Historically streaming has taken a backseat to traditional TV in the annual upfront market. This year, however, streaming will be sitting shotgun as it gets closer to seizing the wheel.” Many upfront presentations this year emphasized the value of ad-supported services like Peacock, Hulu, and HBO Max. In particular, networks focused on the value proposition for advertisers to buy inventory on their ad-supported streaming offerings – to keep those dollars in their family of brands.

The strategy this upfront season contrasts with to Wall Street analysts’ concerns over the long-term viability of the streaming marketplace. In the wake of Netflix’s quarterly performance, Quibi’s short life, and CNN+’s untimely demise, analysts have been skeptical about the marketplace’s growth potential. BofA Global Research analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich reports, “We believe investors are now questioning the long-term market potential in streaming.” However, networks are not only confident that their streamers will continue to attract audiences, they are betting on their connected TV extensions to attract this year’s upfront dollars.

Networks believe that consumer viewing habits, particularly for those who ante up for subscriptions, will prove a viable market for advertising dollars. Streaming service penetration is strong among U.S. households. Deloitte research reports that approximately 80% of U.S. households in the United States paid for a streaming service in 2021, with about 35% churn across the member base. Monitoring engagement is essential to understanding churn. Subscriber growth and retention work hand in hand in monetizing the streaming ecosystem.

Streaming is nearly one-third of TV viewing

Time spent is an essential metric of engagement and retention. The Gauge, Nielsen’s total TV and streaming snapshot for March 2022, shows that streaming audiences spent nearly 30% of their total TV time watching over-the-top video content. Streaming gained a full share point over February as broadcast networks transitioned away from NFL football and the Olympics. The Gauge offers a monthly macroanalysis of how consumers access content across television delivery platforms.

There was a slight decrease of 0.7% in total streaming viewing when comparing total television viewing last month. Viewing share across all streaming providers, Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Prime Video, Disney+, and Other Streaming was either flat or gained slightly in March.

The slight dip in streaming usage is significantly less than the drop in total TV usage, down 4.2%. March’s drop-in TV usage is consistent with historical declines this time of year due to the increase in warmer weather and more time spent outside.

Advertisers chase audiences on CTV

Broadcast programming also lost more than a full share point, and sports viewing was down 53%. NASCAR and the NCAA basketball tournaments are big March events. However, “sports event programming” share of viewing dropped from 25% to 12% in March.

An important question for marketers and agencies is where to place their advertising bets; in other words: how much of their ad budgets should they be transitioning to connected-TV audiences? While linear TV still possesses strong advertising muscle, linear ratings are a dwindling sales proposition. Undoubtedly, audiences can increasingly be found streaming content and that’s where advertisers are looking for them.

Networks and content producers are looking to direct to consumer distribution and connect-TV is center stage. There’s still much to work out, especially around audience fragmentation and measurement. Importantly, connected-TV advertising offers quality and relevance and the ability to implement cross-channel media planning. No doubt that this year’s upfronts require a careful analysis of audiences’ video content consumption in order to make savvy decisions about where ad dollars will be best spent.

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