2020 saw a huge surge in connected TV (CTV) consumption, accelerated by prolonged lockdowns and the subsequent shift in consumer behaviour. Both subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) and ad-based video-on-demand (AVOD) platforms are expanding, with these business models now present in most countries, and we can expect CTV advertising to scale massively in 2021.This will present greater communication opportunities for advertisers who will be able to reach specific audiences and offer ad buyers flexibility, audience segmentation, and targeting – all thanks to data, programmatic planning, and buying. However, as CTV becomes an increasing part of advertisers’ media plans, it’s vital several challenges are solved this year:
Standardisation
CTV ecosystems (such as Samsung, Roku) operate as walled gardens, limiting access to their data. This makes it difficult for advertisers to target cross platform audiences at scale with efficiency, particularly when managing ad exposure and frequency levels. This means the market must find methods that allow interoperability and market co-operations-, as well as facilitate operational efficiency for the buyer.
Identity
Audience targeted buys and measurement in CTV are difficult as there is no cookie and no persistent device identification. This leads to the lack of a holistic identifier for the user. The IAB is looking to address how applications and device manufacturers use this ID to target their audience by creating industry standards.
However, despite the IAB’s efforts, CTV and OTT players still feel the format is untouched by any type of universal principles, and there is much education to be done to encourage companies to consider adopting standards such as Sellers.json and SupplyChain Object.
Fragmentation
Cross screen and cross device fragmentation are impacting ad delivery and measurement. Advertisers must be able to control their media plan across CTV operating systems and apps to reduce the waste of advertising spend. Today most CTV campaigns are operated via direct deals and not sold programmatically.
Fraud management
Within the CTV space, there are a huge number of high-volume devices and operating systems that must be considered – Roku, Tizen, AppleTV, etc – all of which experience fraud in the form of tactics such as device spoofing – where ad requests from CTV devices are faked and not actually shown to consumers.
Conclusion
To address these challenges in 2021, advertisers within the CTV ecosystem must leverage first-party data from suppliers and unlock programmatic demand to accelerate audience-based buying. There is also hope that, as the CTV market matures, collaboration around industry standards for distribution and content across the value chain will become more prevalent.