Perspectives What's this?

In today’s fragmented media landscape, one of the key questions I am regularly asked as the Chief Marketing Officer of the largest provider of independent first-party TV audience data is how advertisers can find their most desirable TV audiences at scale. With viewers cutting the cord at record rates, it’s essential for advertisers to lean into programming that their target audiences have demonstrated interest in, so they can reach them where they are today vs. where they were before.

continue reading

The drivers behind the expansion of the connected TV landscape are many. What started with the rising cost of cable and technological advancements in the delivery of content slowly gave way to new players in the space, mergers and acquisitions and content wars. Add on top of that a two-year pandemic and the rising challenges of inflation, and the groundwork has been laid for continued growth (and monetization) within the incredibly dynamic and ever-evolving CTV landscape.

Today, the CTV revolution is upon us. For advertisers and publishers alike, there’s no denying or controlling the significance or pace of consumer viewing shifts into streaming channels. Rather, the real question that companies must consider is this: Do they have the insights needed to stay on trend?

As companies chart their path forward with regard to the CTV opportunity, here are the key market realities that should be guiding them.

continue reading

When well-established companies go through a pivot, the process is often described as trying to turn around an aircraft carrier.

In Vevo’s case, the move from being a web-centric brand to CTV juggernaut was more like turning an aircraft carrier into a rocket ship - while it’s still moving.

Back in 2019, Vevo content was regularly ranked among the top ten most watched videos on YouTube across the globe, and revenue was growing consistently YOY.

Knowing our content on YouTube was already enjoying viewership on the big screens in homes, we began establishing an entirely new business model - one where a Vevo CTV app and strategically placed linear TV channels (FAST channels for you TV ad tech nerds) could become the primary way we connect with consumers, and our top source of revenue.

Due to the TV-oriented evolution of our business, we had to evolve our products, our marketing strategy, our programming, our relationship with fans – our entire operation. It turns out many of the seeds were planted years before. Here’s how were able to land the plane - and then launch a rocket:

continue reading

While the CTV market will continue to garner billions of dollars in incremental spend each year for the foreseeable future, the tone is beginning to change ever so slightly; from unbridled excitement to a heightened focus on the technology and manner by which CTV ads are bought and sold.

Amid this step change, an old friend has re-emerged at the forefront of industry conversation: Ad Pods.

As a refresher, ad pods are a sequenced group of ads that play one after another within an ad break. Scheduled in pre-, mid-, and post-roll environments, an ad pod equates to a commercial break that runs during an episode of a TV program in linear environments.

continue reading

As CPMs continue to fall and cookies sunset, digital publishers are under more pressure to monetize content. This can put sales, product, and editorial teams at odds, especially when it comes to video content, particularly on mobile, where two-thirds of all video is displayed. But are these teams really after different things?

continue reading

Why AVOD services need to focus on customer satisfaction as their business model takes charge

In the early stages of the pandemic, it seemed that subscription video services had an iron grip on the cultural zeitgeist. From  The Last Dance to Cheer, our conversations were dominated by the newest releases from Netflix, and the company’s stock soared together with other “stay-at-home” names like Peloton and Zoom.
 
Netflix’s prominence may have led some to believe that subscription video on demand (SVOD) represented the most viable business model for a post-pandemic world. However, the company’s recent subscriber miss and resulting stock decline show that SVOD may not be the right vehicle for long-term success. If Netflix can’t sustain its growth goals, entertainment providers will need to reconsider the debate between subscription and ad-supported models.

continue reading

Sometimes the hardest question to answer is “What do you hope happens?” In the world of Connected TV, that existential question can be tricky. Because while CTV provides all the targeting ability of digital media, it also provides all the emotional punch of live, linear TV. That dual capability, along with the fragmentation of platforms where CTV lives, makes for a challenging, inconsistent measurement across the industry.

But here’s the thing – it’s not actually the measurement that’s the first issue. It’s the strategy.
 
Here are a couple of examples.

continue reading

CTV’s growing popularity and the clear shift from traditional linear TV has reinforced its position as the future of advertising. In 2021 alone, 73% of CTV buyers planned to shift their budget from linear TV to CTV, representing a tangible change in the digital advertising market.

But what is driving this massive shift for advertisers from linear to CTV? And why should those in healthcare, specifically, be taking notice?

With the eventual deprecation of the cookie looming, a big focus for marketers in 2022 will be identity resolution. Healthcare marketers need to find innovative ways to harness privacy-compliant identity information to accurately track and measure audience engagement for their campaigns. Cookieless by design, CTV presents valuable opportunities related to identity resolution, something marketers will grapple with in 2022 and beyond as they adjust to this new era of digital advertising.

continue reading