VW, AB InBev and Colgate-Palmolive predict big uptick in CTV ad buying

Marketers from Volkswagen of America, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Colgate-Palmolive agree that the majority of TV ad spend will occur programmatically via connected TV within three years. “We are already on our way at Volkswagen,” Kimberley Gardiner, the automaker’s senior VP of marketing, said during an Advertising Week panel on Monday when asked to agree or disagree with the three-year prediction made by moderator Tim Sims, chief revenue officer at The Trade Desk. Jeff Giacchetti, programmatic video lead at Colgate-Palmolive, went one step further and predicted the shift would occur within two years. “I am pretty confident about that,” Giacchetti said. Register for Ad Age Next: Streaming at AdAge.com/NextStreaming. The CTV buying surge was apparent during this year’s upfront negotiations as brands shifted big chunks of their ad commitments to streaming platforms. Disney saw more than 40% of its sales go to streaming platforms, including Hulu. During Monday’s panel, the marketing executives cited the statistic that 47% of U.S. households are cord-cutters or “cord-nevers” to justify their push into CTV. VW recently shifted a portion of its campaign spending for its new ID4 battery-electric compact crossover to CTV and saw the results, Gardiner said. “The savings can be real and we wouldn’t have reached those folks otherwise,” she said. “We need to get households when we know they are going to be in-market and ready to buy a vehicle. Otherwise, we just can’t afford it.” Still, the marketers noted that CTV versus linear is no longer an “either-or” decision because some households use both. “Sometimes, people think it’s just going to be linear or CTV—things are not that black and white anymore,” Gardiner said. Colgate-Palmolive is taking a “less bifurcated approach to how we are using linear and digital video—they are becoming more harmonized,” Giacchetti said. Audiences are “converging,” he said, adding that the company is reaching incremental audiences with CTV buys, but also “the same households we are reaching in some of our linear buys.”

VW, AB InBev and Colgate-Palmolive predict big uptick in CTV ad buying

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