Why the future of live event advertising is programmatic

Even in today’s fragmented TV landscape, audiences sit down together for major live events like sports and award shows because they are current, engaging and communal. For advertisers, that means big, attentive audiences; in fact, in the U.S., 46 out of the top 50 most-watched primetime telecasts in 2023 were sports or award shows. As premium live events increasingly shift to streaming platforms, advertisers and publishers are looking for ways to get in on the action and tap into the opportunity to reach highly engaged viewers with more targeted ads. To do this effectively, many are turning to the power of programmatic, which allows advertisers to customize messages and deliver them to specific audiences with greater automation. In theory, the two together—programmatic and live events—offer the ability to target precise, engaged audiences at a particular moment at incredible scale and with ultimate ease of execution. But let’s not forget: Live events are complex, no-fail environments where decisions need to be made in seconds. Can the complexity of live events work together in harmony with the precision of programmatic? With the right approach, the answer is yes. The value of live events for advertisers Live events have been all the buzz in the advertising industry lately because as more and more move to streaming, it has opened up opportunities for advertisers of all sizes to take part without those hefty Super Bowl budgets. More importantly, live events mean reaching engaged audiences during big cultural moments. In fact, research shows that live events have a 31% higher visual attention and 41% more emotional engagement than the average traditional, non-sports TV program.¹,² On top of that, live events are communal experiences and are often co-viewed: Ads shown during live sports are 47% more likely to be seen by two or more people sitting in the same room. Best of all, viewers don’t necessarily dislike the ads, especially when they are relevant—almost half of sports fans have a positive perception of ads shown during game coverage. Programmatic’s potential for live When it boils down, programmatic provides targeted reach using real-time data to deliver ads to specific audiences with greater automation; for this reason, its use in streaming has grown 15% in the U.S. over the last year. The pairing of live events and programmatic is a dream scenario for advertisers. It offers huge, leaned-in and engaged audiences in brand safe environments, as well as the ability to deliver customized messages on a more one-to-one basis with more efficiency. In a live environment, programmatic can fully unlock the vision of bringing the best of linear to digital across every stage of the marketing funnel. It delivers targeted audiences, at scale, with reach and frequency controls to minimize over-delivery, all with granular measurement and attribution. But the truth is, programmatic wasn’t built for premium, much less live events with dynamic ad breaks and huge audiences. And it would do us a disservice as an industry not to point out the obvious—the move to streaming means more complexity. Think about it—programmers pushing their content out to more than 400 end points for a single game or event, and also serving ads into the stream? A lot can go wrong in the milliseconds it takes to deliver the right ad to the right viewer, but there are smart, easy ways to avoid any mistakes. Pre-plan and pre-approve before showtime Undertaking a programmatic approach for live events can have its challenges. These challenges are often magnified since everything takes place in real time with large audiences watching, leaving little room for mistakes. So how do we ensure that all the benefits from programmatic seamlessly transition to live events? Outside of working with a partner that can help manage the complexity for both advertisers and programmers, there are three key things that need to be done to ensure success. The future is programmatic Programmatic paired with live events has the potential to be an advertiser’s dream. And although the path to programmatic during live events is still being paved, many advertisers are starting to lean in so they can get the most out of advertising during these highly viewed programs. As an industry, we must work together to improve the infrastructure for advertising programmatically during live events to ensure we’re providing audiences with the best viewer experience. If we can make activating programmatic via live events on streaming a success, think of the implications it has on the future of programming across the entire TV advertising industry. Because if it can work in live events, it can work anywhere. Sources 1. TVision Program Analysis Time Period Report. RYTD as of April 2024. Top 100 Sports Events by Size of Audience. 2. Comcast Advertising, Kantar Consumer Study, April 2024, n=1,000. About FreeWheel FreeWheel empowers all segments of the new TV Ecosystem. We are structured to provide the full breadth of solutions the advertising industry needs to achieve their goals. We provide the technology, data enablement and convergent marketplaces required to ensure buyers and sellers can transact across all screens, across all data types and all sales channels, in order to ensure the ultimate goal—results for marketers. With offices in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Paris, Beijing and across the globe, FreeWheel, a Comcast company, stands to advocate for the entire industry through the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. For more information, please visit freewheel.com.

Why the future of live event advertising is programmatic

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