How can advertisers maximize the effectiveness of CTV?

Chris Edwards, business development director, Rakuten Advertising

CTV offers advertisers the power of context. In a recent study by Rakuten Advertising, we saw that brand recall is higher on CTV than on traditional TV. The reason for this is that CTV offers advertisers the opportunity to place their ads in front of consumers at the most relevant time. Advertisers can shift from broadcasting with the emphasis on ‘broad’ (widespread exposure driving awareness and recall) to narrowcasting (using the ability to target at a niche level through CTV). With the findings showing that brand recall on streaming services is overtaking traditional TV, the combination of the two reinforces the effectiveness of any media strategy.

Monica Prior Jimenez, director of account strategy EU, VDX.tv

CTV is currently the only medium within the home that offers the powerful combination of big screen branding impact and digital ‘style’ targeting, measurement and attribution. Thanks to this, it can act as a bridge between the two worlds of linear TV and digital advertising, and it is helping to bring these two disciplines closer together: both in terms of provoking more integrated strategies from advertisers, and at the practical level - for example in how agency teams are structured. When CTV ads are imbued with an element of interactivity (QR codes, for example) and strategically leveraged within a household-based sequential targeting solution, CTV turns into an engagement tool as well as a brand awareness one.

Elisa Schwuchow, senior director, buyer growth & revenue, Verve Group

Perhaps the most unique feature in CTV is the granularity of targeting that it allows. As a result, CTV ads result in a higher quality of impressions, though this tends to come with higher CPMs than traditional TV. There's a lot of investment in the industry to make CTV ads interactive, measurable, and to make them part of a cross-channel advertising experience - which makes perfect sense, as long as you are able to target both CTV and mobile devices in the same household. This is usually possible though independent DSPs that own large mobile audiences, as opposed to buying platforms run by device manufacturers or streaming companies themselves. Add retargeting and dynamic creative optimization on top and you are running cross-device storytelling campaigns with granular targeting with first-party or third-party audiences, geo and frequency capping.

Ed French, CEO, 7th Minute

CTV brings privacy-centric contextual advertising to the most effective and trusted consumer screen - it’s the “leading source of advertising that the UK public liked, trusted, stuck in their memory and made them feel emotional” according to Thinkbox research. This means that brands can take advantage of the enduring appeal of TV, but also reach their audiences with data-driven targeting. And in being accessible with smaller budgets, CTV also levels the playing field by opening the channel to SMEs and challenger brands who can run targeted campaigns across premium broadcasters.

Katie Hoseit, VP of sales east (US) & director of sales UK, Sabio

CTV offers accountability and a customized approach to media buying. It helps brands not only have a nimble way to place SOV to consumers, but additionally target and scale to demographics that historically have been tougher to reach. It’s not a one size fits all approach. Measurement, adaptability to consumption habits, demographic reach and interactive units you can physically engage with are just a few examples of the ways brands can not only capitalize, but ensure they’re garnering the insights from where the money was spent and what impact it made.

David Mwila, senior sales manager, CTV/Advanced TV, UK & Northern Europe, Equativ

CTV’s unique value comes from its ability to heighten efficiency, impact, and scale for advertisers, while also ensuring greater visibility and control for both the buy and sell-sides. Transparent, interoperable solutions underpin the trust in CTV, bringing buyers and sellers closer together and addressing the interests of both. Additionally, over one-quarter of UK and US viewers can now be reached exclusively via streaming platforms. Advertisers have a huge opportunity to leverage the premium viewer experience that CTV delivers to maximize performance, expand their reach, and connect with target audiences.