By: Kelsey Corlett. Marketing Activation Consultant
Introduction
With so much ad clutter, advertisers increasingly seek new creative ways to captivate their audience. With the added challenge of ad blindness among consumers, standard banner formats are often insufficient to drive memory retention and value for consumers (Hervet, Guérard, Tremblay, et,al., 2010). The good news is, Connected TV (CTV) may help you overcome this challenge. When combined strategically with other channels in your marketing mix, CTV offers all the benefits of traditional TV with less fuss.
While the definition may differ depending on who you ask, at its core, CTV is an internet-connected device that facilitates streaming services and enables viewership on TVs. CTV is one of the fastest-growing channels in digital marketing. CTV is projected to grow a further 22.4% in 2024 (Lebow, 2024). There has been a significant shift of consumers moving from traditional cable TV to smart devices and connected TV. The global smart TV market is forecast to grow at a rate of 6.9% between 2023-2032 (Market.us, 2023). Since the popularization of CTV in 2019, we have seen inventory availability and the number of CTV Media providers take off. Following streaming platforms like Hulu and Disney+, 2023 saw Netflix follow suit in launching connected TV ads on their platform.
While TV continues to be an optimal choice for marketers as a highly emotive and engaging format with a proven track record for driving brand awareness, CTV offers marketers the best of both worlds – the impact of traditional TV with less wastage and easier execution. The CTV channel has brought in new features which weren’t previously available on traditional TV specifically, measurable reach and performance, interactive capabilities and targetability.
What is the value of CTV, and why should brands consider including CTV in their media strategies?
Connected TV (CTV) advertising offers several benefits for marketers and brands:
- Cost-effectiveness: CTV advertising provides a more cost-effective way than traditional TV advertising to reach streaming audiences.
- Data-driven ads: CTV relies on hard data, such as IP addresses and device IDs, to target individuals and households. This enables advertisers to deliver contextually relevant content and tailor their ads to specific audiences.
- Precise targeting: CTV advertising allows for precise targeting based on demographics, location, viewing history, and other factors.
- Measurable results: CTV advertising provides more measurable results compared to traditional TV advertising. Marketers can track attribution, measure return on ad spend (ROAS), and gain insights into campaign performance.
- Cross-screen advertising: CTV advertising can be integrated into larger omnichannel campaigns that span multiple screens, including smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
Although CTV provides solutions to many of the issues that arose from traditional TV, it’s important to note that CTV doesn’t replace traditional TV in the media plan. It certainly isn’t the be-all-and-end-all answer to digital marketing either. Combined with other channels, however, CTV can be a very powerful tool to boost your brand’s marketing and communication objectives.
How to get the best from CTV
Considering video assets in your marketing campaigns is an effective way of overcoming rising banner blindness (Pernice, 2018). However, it is important to distribute these across multiple channels to ensure that you get the most value from your video assets, which are often costly to produce. It is also important to reach consumers across multiple touchpoints throughout their day, whether it be on their journey to work, or while they stream their favourite show. With so many video-based channels available to brands, knowing where to execute your video assets can become tricky.
Below is a comparison of some of the core video-based channels. Each channel plays a vital role in enhancing brand awareness and cultivating a broader first-party data audience base, that facilitates more effective lower funnel targeting. Depending on your budget and campaign goals, leveraging the strengths of each of these video channels can help increase your ROI.
| Channel | CTV | Traditional TV | Video | Digital Out of Home |
| Cost | Lower Medium | High | Low | Upper Medium |
| Goal | Awareness/Consideration | Awareness | Awareness/Consideration | Awareness |
| Funnel Level | Upper/Middle | Upper | Upper/Middle | Upper |
| Targetable | Yes | No | Yes | Limited |
| Measurable | Yes | No | Yes | Limited |
While CTV can be leveraged at all levels of the marketing funnel with strategic targeting, CTVs strengths lie in its ability to reach viewers at scale, making it ideal for inclusion in upper-funnel strategies. Combined with its ability to reach users at scale, the low cost of CTV compared to traditional TV, means that it is even more effective as a mass awareness driver. While video campaigns may be cheaper to execute than CTV, Traditional TV or Digital Out of Home (DOOH), CTV provides the opportunity to reach your audience on larger screens with greater visibility and in a new context (in-stream).
Like any channel, CTV should not be used in isolation, but should rather be executed alongside other complimentary channels. In cases where advertisers have larger budgets, CTV can be used to extend the reach of existing traditional TV or DOOH campaigns to a more targeted audience. Integrating CTV within other digital channels, such as display retargeting campaigns, can tie CTV campaigns to bottom-funnel results. This approach allows for the activation of first-party data and the retargeting of users who were exposed to a CTV ad via other digital channels like online video or display ads.
One of the advantages of CTV is its capability to amplify your brand messaging among highly engaged consumers within a targeted or contextually relevant environment. While CTV may not be the primary driver of conversions itself, incorporating this channel strategically into your marketing mix can enhance the effectiveness of other lower-funnel channels, such as search and remarketed display. By leveraging CTV alongside these complementary channels, you can maximize the impact of your marketing efforts and achieve better overall results.
What is the Future for CTV?
CTV continues to grow and evolve as a channel as more users adopt connected TV’s and move to streaming platforms.
In response to third-party cookie deprecation, contextual advertising is expected to play a larger role in CTV. Content object signals, such as content type, genre, and rating, are becoming important tools for enhancing contextual targeting in CTV advertising and helping improve brand safety.
With consumers viewing streamed video on multiple screens and across various content providers and platforms, accurate and precise media measurement will continue to be a significant challenge for CTV advertisers. Other channels, however, will not go unscathed by measurement challenges either. Advertisers will need to bolster their first-party data strategies to overcome these measurement challenges.
CTV presents a powerful tool for marketers to engage audiences across various stages of the marketing funnel, with its strengths in upper-funnel reach and awareness. Its ability to deliver content on large screens in an environment where consumers are already engaged makes it even stronger as an awareness-driving format. When integrated with other complementary channels, such as traditional TV, DOOH, and digital retargeting campaigns, CTV can extend campaign reach and tie into bottom-funnel results through the activation of first-party data. We encourage marketers to take the plunge and experiment with CTV in your marketing mix to help overcome rising ad blindness and achieve your brand awareness goals.
Questions or Comments?
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