Why TV is the ‘new oil’ for cross-screen advertising
TV is one of the fastest-moving areas of programmatic advertising, says Videology‘s head of global TV strategies, Rhys McLachlan. Is the ad tech industry ready to deliver?
We’re at an inflection point in TV – thanks, in large part, to the changing ways in which we’re consuming content. The result: advertisers and agencies have started planning TV and online video campaigns in tandem, and advertisers are increasingly looking to bring the addressability and efficiencies of online advertising to TV media planning and execution.
Addressable linear TV may still be in its infancy, but advertisers are increasingly looking for truly holistic campaigns that capitalise on the opportunities of engaging with audiences across multiple screens. As online video, set-top-box VoD, smart and addressable TV become ever more important to viewers, we should be looking at TV and online as part of one ecosystem.
TV is one of the fastest-moving areas of programmatic advertising as advertisers move to seize the massive opportunity to capture linear TV, smart-TV, and online video viewers as they shift between viewing platforms and devices. So is the ad tech industry ready to deliver?
My answer is that all of the pieces are now in place. Consumers are there, the data has caught up, online video has matured as an advertising media and the foundations for an addressable TV market have been established:
– Consumer habits have changed the face of TV. TV consumption is changing. While couch-bound, conventional, push-linear TV remains a powerful medium that draws many advertising pounds, it’s increasingly supplemented by all manner of consumption states across a multitude of devices.
The majority of these viewing experiences are delivered to the consumer over IP, and this means the advertising route to viewers is more sophisticated, addressable, dynamic, and trackable.
Both the demand- and sell-side are ready to implement and act upon the convergence of TV and video. What’s more, ad tech companies increasingly have the tools and expertise needed to help them efficiently plan, buy and sell ads across screens.
– We now have the data to create the opportunities. Data is the Rosetta Stone in the cross-screen advertising opportunity, enabling the holy grail of advertising: the delivery of the right content at the right time to the right audience.
By combining online with TV viewing data, it’s possible to create single-source/multi-screen metrics. This gives advertisers the statistical and behavioural information they need to deliver campaigns that incorporate TV and are optimised by online, so helping them deliver on their goals. This also allows for bi-directional insights, enabling advertisers to deliver truly holistic cross-screen campaigns.
– TV is not only the past, it’s the future. The TV has been in the home for over 60 years and it’s not time to throw your set out just yet. These are early days for addressable TV as a fundamental element of the media-landscape, but we must see this as an opportunity, rather than a challenge.
By making use of third and first party data and bolstering that with platform data from the online video space, advertisers can plan their TV buying based on the real-world audience that’s actually watching a show. Addressability makes TV advertising relevant and that relevancy is more likely to generate engagement and sales leads, which is why this is undoubtedly the future of media planning.
With all the pieces in place, now is the right time to dive in and reap the rewards of moving fast to capture the cross-screen advertising opportunity. Armed with the tools and insight now available to the industry, advertisers are primed to unlock TV’s goldmine.