Ever wondered what all the hype surrounding Connected TV advertising is really all about?
Have you been asking yourself how this advertising transformation can benefit you?
If so, then you came to the right place!
Here’s what you need to know.
A change to be reckoned with
In 2000, 98 percent of American households had a TV set. Before the world discovered the power of digital advertising, the television had been in charge; a little box with cords was the undefeated champion when it came to influencing our purchase intent for about seven decades. Like most things, the traditional TV popularity is declining pretty fast, only reaching seven out of ten people in a day today.
As more Americans cut cords, connected TV advertising is stepping in to replace the traditional TV commercials and reserve the crucial TV’s title as the leading advertising medium.
Businesses are rushing to get their ads on the big screen without having to part with the typical huge amounts of cash. Everyone seems to be trying to get a piece of the attention of millennials and cord-cutters while testing out their creativity in messaging before TV buys- just to say the least. If you haven’t figured out how to rebalance your advertising spend toward the revolutionary TV advertising, this is the time to rethink your approach and strategy.
What does connected TV advertising really mean?
Firstly, CTV or Connected TV is any television that you can connect to the internet and use to access content stretching beyond what is offered by a cable provider. CTV basically includes the digital ads purchased programmatically and displayed on the over-the-top (OTT) devices or computer and mobile streaming devices.
CTV thus allows you to display ads on top content providers such as DIRECTV On Demand, Sling TV and Roku to reach the US cord cutting households.
Technically, CTV advertising is a kind of PMP or private marketplace deal in which the programmatic media buying ecosystem works with different levels of auctions, and each level of the “waterfall” holds its own price and access parameters. The PMP inventory sales is one auction level higher than the open exchange but provides marketers the opportunity to access certain placements in an auction with fewer bidders, increasing the rates of winning.
It’s important to note that the PMP or private marketplace is limited, and thus, only a few “VIPs” are invited. It also provides access to very specific sections on sites or creative formats unlikely to be targetable in our open auction space. In a private marketplace, the creative formats available comprise display, audio, video and OTT television.
A major trend in 2020
CTV advertising already has a position among the biggest trends in marketing over the last couple of years. In 2020, the pandemic has led to a huge increase in the popularity of CTV and OTT, with CTV viewing in particular increasing from 2.7 billion hours- before the pandemic- to 3.9 billion hours. In case it hasn’t sunk in, we’re talking about an 81 percent year-on-year increase!
As the restrictions continue to ease in different regions, we’re seeing a significant drop in linear TV. CTV, on the other hand, has managed to stay on the same level. The programmatic TV transactions have grown by 40 percent, which is a clear indication that advertisers are actively re-balancing their advertising spend towards this promising path. It’s difficult not to see that the rapid increase of CTV adoption is an indication that we’re getting into a new digital advertising era in which OTT and CTV ads are the prominent feature in our media mix.