CTV is at a crossroads, writes Mark Walker, CEO of Direct Digital Holdings. We’re already seeing streaming become the dominant way TV is delivered, which opens up CTV ads to a wealth of possibilities. With that, the industry will face an existential question: What is the role of TV advertising now that it is connected?
For years, video completion rate (VCR) has been a top metric for digital marketers. But as a standalone measurement metric, VCR doesn’t cut it anymore, writes Katie Cladis, VP of product at Digital Remedy. While it can illuminate aspects of advertising’s performance, it just shouldn’t be at the very center of a modern video ad campaign.
Ad tech companies are being reincarnated as streaming services. But over-the-top (OTT) technology is a very different animal from digital. Programmers need to understand that there’s no easy button for monetizing their inventory, especially if they want to attract ad dollars from advertisers looking for specific multicultural audiences, says Isabel Rafferty Zavala, CEO of Canela Media.
As TV viewership behavior has evolved, both buyers and sellers were increasingly forced to deal with digital inventory (CTV). Impressions are the standard metric in the CTV environment, which means there’s been a surge in support and comfort around impressions as a currency, writes Brie Pinnow, co-founder of Blinc. And this trend will only continue.
Just because the media world has gone fully digital doesn’t mean we need to impose early digital models and constraints on every opportunity, said Philip Inghelbrecht, CEO of Tatari. More CTV inventory will roll into programmatic pipes in coming years, he writes, but the notion that it’ll achieve programmatic domination is faulty — CTV inventory is still very different from digital.
With a bear market upon us and the chance of a recession as high as 44%, marketers are bracing for budget cuts. Typically, marketers pull back on branding when money gets tight, retreating to superficial, measurable safe havens like search and social. But one channel that is likely to endure the recession is CTV, writes Gijsbert Pols, PhD, director of CTV and new channels at Adjust.
CTV scales. But does it perform? Matthew Koontz started his career at Arnold Worldwide before moving on to lead ad product teams at Hulu, Snapchat, Microsoft and Xandr (before the two merged) and WideOrbit. Koontz joined tvScientific in June, and he spoke with AdExchanger about why CTV is a “sweet spot” for performance marketers.
Box office star power and spending is pouring into household devices, writes Ashwin Navin, co-founder and CEO at Samba TV. Audiences are experiencing subscription fatigue and turning to cheaper ad-supported models, and even Netflix appears to finally be cracking and embracing this option to grow revenue.
In mid-July, Netflix announced a partnership with Microsoft, selecting the tech giant for its new advertising and sales agency. Odd, right? The obvious choice was Google, especially with the push for cookieless data. But there’s more than meets the eye to this partnership. Clearly, there’s something in it for both players, writes Humphrey Ho, managing director of Hyperlink Digital’s Americas business.
The success and value of an AVOD platform depends on more than just the size and growth of the audience. How much time they spend streaming also matters. And as the AVOD landscape becomes more competitive, platforms like Netflix will need to focus on user experience to keep viewers watching, writes Joel Cox, co-founder and SVP of strategy and innovation at Strategus.
