Video-based ACR holds the key for reaching CTV audiences
You can’t dispute the growth of CTV, says David Barker, SVP of global commercial partnerships at Samba TV. But where are the advertising opportunities?
Connected TV (CTV) viewership has undisputedly skyrocketed.
Multiple reports have revealed the time consumers spend with digital TV is growing rapidly and, in 2021, forecasts predict CTV will draw a total audience of almost 42 million.
It’s impossible to escape the industry’s excitement – but in the UK at least, is the growth of CTV viewership leading to greater advertising opportunities?
CTV attracts highly engaged audiences, as viewers control what they watch, when, and how across a multitude of devices.
Although advertisers are aware of the advantage this can give them, there is a large proportion of CTV inventory they can’t yet place traditional advertising against.
Content sponsorship offers one way to connect brands with audiences, but how can advertisers navigate CTV’s tricky potential for extending reach and maximising impact?
The UK’s CTV landscape
Subscription-based video-on-demand
SVOD currently captures the majority of consumers’ time spent with CTV.
Prior to the impacts of Covid-19, a majority of UK households had subscribed to an SVOD service, with 45% of digital viewers signed up to Netflix and 39% using Amazon Prime Video.
After March 2020, Disney+ launched and became the third largest subscription-based service, while time spent viewing SVOD continued to dramatically increase due to lockdowns.
So, what does this mean for advertisers? Premium SVOD content is ad-free, but the rising competition in this space is causing subscription fatigue to emerge in UK viewers, suggesting consumption habits will continue to be a mix of paid and ad-funded options.
Broadcast video-on-demand
BVOD services are an extension of existing linear offerings, for instance ITV Hub and All 4, which reach more than 20 million viewers apiece.
BVOD offers advertisers premium inventory that delivers reach, especially when combined with their linear TV counterparts.
The catch here is that, despite high demand, inventory is primarily considered an add-on to the existing linear offering, rather than a standalone channel.
YouTube
While YouTube accounts for a serious chunk of total mobile internet traffic, there is a growing audience that now streams its content via connected TVs.
In total however, YouTube makes up less than 5% of all time spent with TV sets and many of its video ads are skippable after the five-second mark.
This means it gives advertisers a small window of opportunity, both in terms of reach and to capture audience interest.
Advertising-based video-on-demand
AVOD services represent a small portion of the CTV landscape in the UK.
As it’s still early days for AVOD, advertisers have a disparate selection of services to choose from.
With major brands being accustomed to the benefits of linear TV, AVOD is unlikely to be viewed as a viable option for materially improving the reach of their TV advertising in the near-term.
Extending addressability via digital
To make the most of current shifts in consumption, advertisers need a solution that can maximise the impact of their ad campaigns across digital TV.
The fragmented TV landscape means audiences have not only diversified their platforms and services, but also changed their viewing habits.
Binge watching and ad skipping are commonplace and brands need a clear picture of consumer behaviours to strengthen their advertising strategies.
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Opt-in video-based Automatic Content Recognition technology (ACR) provides advertisers with real-time, first-party insight into their audiences.
When consumers view content on smart TVs or set-top boxes, video-based ACR uses video fingerprinting to identify what’s being watched.
It matches individual video frames to a reference library, allowing it to recognise commercial or programming content from various sources such as broadcast and streaming services.
This process instantly delivers accurate and privacy-compliant viewership data at household level.
Video-based ACR overcomes the challenges of collating platform-specific data by being content agnostic, allowing brands to build a holistic view of audiences no matter how they watch video content.
Knowing what ads viewers have already seen, or skipped, enables advertisers to leverage these insights within brands’ digital advertising, extending TV’s reach.
Whether that’s through personalisation of a digital ad because of the TV content a person has chosen to watch, or managing and optimising frequency because the user has already been exposed to a brand’s TV ad.
This is particularly useful for connecting with SVOD audiences, as brands can place relevant ads on smartphones or devices linked with the household TV.
Video-based ACR brings TV and digital advertising closer together, equipping brands with an effective solution for optimising ad campaigns across services and devices.
The buzz around CTV’s rapidly expanding viewership will no doubt get louder.
Yet, while CTV will offer some impressive opportunities for marketers, it won’t offer the reach linear TV advertisers are used to.
Consumption patterns will continue to fragment, making omni-screen insights a key advantage in both the present and future media landscape.
No matter what or how consumers choose to watch, advertisers must be prepared to meet them where they are.
When viewing habits can shift almost overnight, waiting for piecemeal solutions to emerge for specific services isn’t viable – brands need the ability to target audiences and optimise strategies across any and all channels.