It’s been nearly a decade since the first streaming devices hit the market, and we are finally seeing the tipping point for connected TV (CTV) transformation.
According to eMarketer, 55 percent of the U.S. population currently watches content on over-the-top (OTT) and CTV devices. This migration of eyeballs to streaming is priming the advertising market for a swell in CTV growth. Yet we still haven’t seen a corresponding shift of ad dollars going into CTV. What’s holding advertisers back?
We see three major obstacles impacting advertiser adoption of CTV: measurement, creative scale and fragmentation.
Solving the measurement dilemma
As OTT impressions continue to surge, it has become increasingly difficult to measure these impressions accurately due to a lack of standards. Broadcasters have gravitated towards live television ad insertion in recent years, which also scaled the measurement challenge, as tools were not available to accurately measure impressions and traffic.
To solve this issue, the Media Rating Council (MRC) recently announced OTT served video ad impression tracking. Innovid is the first company to receive MRC accreditation for adherence to industry standards for video advertising measurement in a CTV environment. This advancement in OTT measurement enables billable currency and reduces discrepancies, providing marketers with accurate information on where their ads are running and how engaged viewers are. Brands and publishers can now execute real-time targeting through measurable, data-driven TV ad experiences.
Scaling video personalization
While digital ads are easily scalable and customizable, creative scale in the CTV landscape has historically been cost-prohibitive and resource-intensive. As a result, marketers have typically avoided developing data-driven spots that are customized to each household (as they do for other channels such as display and social).
But there is now the technology and infrastructure to scale personalization to TV ads as well. With Innovid’s video advertising platform, video ads for CTV can be scaled in hours, ultimately creating a better viewing experience.
Furthermore, the launch of Innovid’s OTT Composer self-service creative authoring tool removes some of the barriers by enabling users to build an interactive video once and create multiple versions and interactive iterations. OTT Composer works across a large number of connected and streaming devices, including Roku, Apple TV, Samsung, Amazon Fire and PlayStation, as well as many large channels like Hulu and Fox/true[X].
Patching up a fragmented landscape
The CTV landscape today is similar in fragmentation to the mobile device ecosystem —both in terms of the number of devices and the app-based approach. However, unlike mobile, there is no clear winner, where scale or mass reach can be achieved. For CTV, marketers will require a ubiquitous platform that can provide mass reach and seamless creative scale to play across all parties —from Amazon to Roku to Google and more.
Innovid helps solve this dilemma by acting as a media-agnostic, neutral connector that reaches 75 million households, thanks to technology integrations for its SDKs widely deployed across the market. This reach helps connect the dots between each channel, device and household to provide marketers the scale they need.
A bright CTV future
Advertising spend and innovation follow eyeballs, and CTV is undoubtedly the future of video. While there are formidable challenges that need to be solved to reinvent TV advertising, the building blocks are starting to fall into place.
With the industry convening to solve issues related to measurement, scale and fragmentation, CTV will be transformative, with technical capabilities finally meeting consumer experience expectations.
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Beth-Ann Eason is president of Innovid overseeing Innovid’s global sales, marketing and client services teams. Previously, she held several executive roles at Condé Nast, including SVP, digital development and SVP/GM of Epicurious. She was part of an exclusive group inducted into the AAF Hall of Achievement. She is a founding member of W.O.M.E.N., a professional women’s mentoring program and served on the boards for the Online Publishers Association, the IAB, the AAF and the Advertising Club of New York.
