How CTV is Impacting the Future of Smart Television and Digital Marketing

As CTV/OTT marketing becomes a more mainstream form of advertising, you may be wondering what the future holds for this emerging industry. If so, you are not alone. This very same question is being asked by marketing professionals and businesses of all types. They want to know “what’s next” for CTV advertising so that they can capitalize on the ever-evolving forms of digital marketing.

With this in mind, our experts have identified some of the top trends that will shape the CTV advertising industry in the coming years.

Will Smart TV Influence the Television?

A look at the recent history of Connected Television (CTV) reveals that before and especially during the pandemic, CTV entrenched itself as a video source for locked down viewers. Until COVID-19 hit, earlier predictions of migration from traditional broadcast to streaming had probably taken place at a rate of six percent annually.

However, with the 2020-2021 lock-downs, the future of today’s CTV became confronted with a new podium of marketing. As never before, expectations are rife that smart TV will influence television as we know it into an emotively arbitrated exchange. Consequently, our surveys concur with those of others that most advertisers believe that, like smart TV, all television ought to sell on perceptions. The future today of CTV is such that as the median age of linear TV continues to get older, CTV has reached younger, more emotively driven consumers.

The Current State of the Smart TV Revolution

As of 2021, it is estimated that the presence of smart TV in American households had attained the 70% mark. Given this, advertisers are pulling from linear budgets to chase audiences on CTV. Television manufacturers of smart TVs, like Vizio, have equally seen a noticeable change in viewing behavior. A third of all viewing is linear compared to 60% two years ago as viewers migrated to streaming video.

The history of CTV is such that to measure smart TV viewer habits, Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) data identifies content that shows on a smart TV via streaming or television broadcast. Consequently, the past two years have recorded a tremendous increase in streamed advertisements’ viewership.

The ongoing release of premium award-winning content onto streaming platforms has been at the forefront of such migration and adoption of streaming video. A recent survey found that for nearly 50% of Americans, streaming video streaming has influenced the buying of gadgets and household appliances in the last 12 months.

Recent surveys report that over 80% of American households own a minimum of one CTV device, an infiltration above that of cable TV. Subsequently, a significant number of adult viewers reportedly watch streamed video content daily- more so, every week. These stats equate to those of the pandemic and indicate that post-pandemic CTV viewing has not waned. Recent surveys on TV convergence also confirm that nearly 80% of respondents believe that their viewing can now be categorized into linear and streaming.

More than ever before, viewers of CTV streamed and broadcast content have more choices, from pay-per-view apps to free ad-supported streamed TV (FAST) apps. Equally aiding the future of today’s CTV viewership are YouTube and Netflix. Research shows that during 2020, both increased time spent streaming content on CTV by between 50% and 63%. Young adults are the highest number of viewers of CTV.

How is Smart TV Changing the Future?

Smart TV provides opportunities to unify all televisions on the landscape. With the increase in smart TVs, all television is now connected to the internet. As such, those who venture into opted-in ACR data from Smart TVs or employ direct publisher data such as content-level targeting will succeed. For instance, ACR technology companies can monitor ad breaks and target specific adverts to their television audience.

Challenges of CTV

CTV is deemed by some in the industry that Ad tech partners must innovate and evolve quickly if they are to provide unique advanced offerings to publishers and advertisers. The more complementary and sophisticated their provisions, the more proficient they will be in their performance outcomes and ability to unlock value.

While ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) has the potential to unify linear and CTV/OTT advertising, it is being hindered by walled gardens. Accessing ACR totally beyond the walled garden on the open web would enable it to be deduped at scale and enriched through such sources as set-top-boxes. This would empower buyers to measure their linear and CTV/OTT goals.

Yet another challenge is the worry over user privacy in the context of digital and CTV/oTT. Despite conversations around GDPR and cookie deprecation, consumers still feel insecure about their data. They would like to comprehend and control who is accessing and using their data and how?

Marketers are uneasy about spanning both linear and CTV. Understandably, the corridor is challenging to navigate through purchasing, planning, and measuring across both platforms. 57% of marketers believe that the accuracy of cross-platform TV attribution and measurement is the biggest challenge to TV advertising convergence. The ability to run linear and streaming promotions competently is essential before spending. Subsequently, media entrepreneurs remain cautiously reluctant to commit entirely to the current arrangement.

CTV’s success has attracted criminals, and opportunists bent on defrauding and deceiving. As CTV continues to gain ground and popularity, it’s most likely that such nefarious acts are likely to escalate in both magnitude, complexity, and hazard. A case in point is the Smoke Screen scam which swindled over ten thousand advertisers of some $6-million.

Predictions for CTV

The future for CTV is forecast to be bright. Looking at the future today, CTV’s connectivity of the entire television landscape equates to every advert being a CTV ad and addressable. Consequently, everyone in the ad world is excited about the prospect of such dynamism in advertising. Given that digital performance has dipped since 2021, marketers have sought new outlets for their advertising spending.

While Nielsen’s woes will worsen in 2022 as they lose more sway, CTV premium platform gains are expected to retain and build on their profits through innovation. By the end of 2022, IPG MAGNA predicts CTV ad spending to reach nearly $7Billion.

In view of the acts of criminality mentioned above, the future today CTV presents leads experts to predict a surge in third-party organizations working within the walled gardens of the CTV platform. Their task would be to eliminate personal identifiable and deliver them to advertisers.

It has also been predicted that an increase in demand for inventory is bound to make the scene doubly a seller’s market, leading to further consolidation in the ad tech space. In such a scenario, both distributors and purchasers will probably reduce their register of ad-tech associates to mainly the reliable.

That way, publishers will be able to control their inventory and reap both the efficiency and windfall of working with a single trustworthy partner. As such, companies capable of forming strong associations with both the buy and sell sides by providing the most effective means for both to transact will succeed in the marketplace.

Conclusion

It is critical as interest, and spending on CTV marketing continue to swell and advertisers progressively re-appraise the destination of their allocations.

Sign up with TheExpertCafé TODAY and help it grow even more by answering surveys regularly and in turn, you could earn up to $100 per survey in rewards.