Connected TV (CTV) is among the hottest channels for marketers today. According to a recent Vericast study, 70% of U.S. adults currently use streaming TV services, and almost half (46%) of consumers are more inclined to research or purchase a product or service they saw advertised on streaming TV than what they see advertised on linear TV.
As a result, eMarketer forecasts that CTV advertising in the U.S. will reach almost $27.5 billion by 2025, up from just $2.64 billion in 2017.
However, CTV is much more than a new, bright and shiny object. In fact, it’s importance is only just now being recognized in two key areas: Driven by data, CTV campaigns can deliver the most effective personalized advertising to a modern TV audience, and because of that CTV can be an essential part of a broader communications strategy across multiple channels.
In short, the data derived by CTV campaigns can dramatically transform an omnichannel strategy by informing (and reinforming) multichannel next actions.
Retargeting across channels
Consider retargeting. With data integrated and commingled across all channels, including CTV, you can accurately target your ideal audience, gauge the effectiveness of your message due to the resulting behaviors and then continue to connect beyond the screen. For example, you could make sure your engaged viewers receive a follow-up in the mailbox or on their mobile phone, in their email or in their social media feeds.
The prerequisite is that your data gets connected across all of the media channels via a data platform with a true and full view of the consumer. This is where a best-in-class vendor or solution provider comes in, offering ways to integrate data across channels and providing actionable insight into program results.
On any connected device—including CTV—you can know how people are consuming content and screen them in increasingly finer segments of interest, geography and demographics.
The connection between CTV and an omnichannel strategy has another fascinating component: You may know who your most-likely customers are, but you may not know what advertising channel they’re focused on at a given time. For example, our research has shown that people actually enjoy walking to the mailbox! Some consumers might ignore your TV ad but are zoned in on the mail. Or, you might miss them with a display ad but captivate them tomorrow with a great ad placement during their favorite streaming TV show. Thus, a unified customer data platform across all your channels can catch consumers when and where they choose to be.
Determining real-world performance
At Vericast, we execute campaigns on our Illumis digital marketing platform, which combines intelligence, media and technology for a data-informed approach to omnichannel media buying. This platform serves to verify how well a brand’s omnichannel marketing strategy performs, leveraging data integrated across channels. For CTV, that means that brands can onboard their first-party data, have that data informed by other ad campaign performance, quickly create an addressable audience for TV ads and engage that audience across CTV platforms and over-the-top (OTT) channels—all while tying ad frequency to real-world performance and match-back analysis.
Meanwhile, automated content recognition allows marketers to retarget audiences (via social media, display or offline channels) from a brand's current TV ad during or after ad exposure to increase campaign effectiveness.
Here’s an example: Olive oil company Filippo Berio launched a campaign spotlighting the brand's extra virgin olive oil using the Illumis intelligence platform to target shoppers via a mix of digital display, social media and CTV advertising. Targeted high-intent consumers included those who shopped in-store and omnichannel, as well as ordered delivery, with consumer profiles continuously optimized using real-time sales. The campaign ran in two flights, spaced one month apart, and outperformed both viewability and CTR benchmarks. Both flights of the campaign drove a 6% sales lift at a key retailer, surpassing the benchmark of 1.1% to 5.7%.
The gains were especially strong at the Publix grocery store chain, where the company’s olive oil product saw a 46% sales lift in the first flight and a 10.1% increase in the second. Most of those buyers were ages 35-44. As a result of this and similar positive outcomes for other brands, I’m happy to say that Illumis has nabbed several prestigious industry awards recently.
Feedback and continuous improvement
The beauty of this approach is that the data gets richer with each campaign. As a campaign is deployed against a particular target, you start to get feedback on response: Did they see it, did they engage with it, did it result in a sale or a store visit? You might also find that your message appealed to a different age group or demo than expected, or that the user would prefer an environmentally friendly message, or that they would take advantage of a coupon or discount if you offered one. By having this data at your fingertips, your audience is better calibrated in line with your campaign, and practically speaking you can assume a particular target is really primed for your product.
Considering the projections for CTV’s growth and reach, the addressable, wide-ranging capabilities make it a terrific and valuable digital advertising option to add to your omnichannel strategy. The real beauty is that you can measure CTV, giving the opportunity to continually test and learn what works and refine your strategies over time.