After two unprecedented years, the seismic shifts in connected television (CTV), identity and political ad spend will continue to inform the year to come.
Here are three predictions for the future of advertising in 2022.
Direct-to-programmatic will spur programmatic CTV technology advancements
In the last 18 months, connected television has emerged as a top focus and area of investment in programmatic advertising. As streaming TV skyrocketed during the pandemic, and since so much that was once linear pivoted to digital, we've seen several years' worth of CTV acceleration in the past 18 months alone.
As a result, streaming spend will swell to the point that advertisers, feeling the time burden that comes with direct buying, will crave the efficiency gains of programmatic CTV. To meet advertisers’ needs, programmatic CTV will need to continue to evolve to work more seamlessly with these advertisers. That will enable the industry to have more momentum around existing and new solutions, including ad pods, video content transparency and creative programmatic deals solutions like multiseller deal curation.
Identity solutions will sufficiently supplement a cookieless world
The new reality associated with identity came into sharp focus in 2021, driven largely by Google's announcement about third-party cookie deprecation. We have since seen a variety of identity solutions emerge, including common IDs, Google’s Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), publisher IDs and modeled solutions with no IDs at all.
In the year ahead, the pros and cons of these solutions will continue to be weighed and evaluated as they jostle for the spotlight. But based on early indications, these solutions could actually significantly outperform the cookie-based world we have lived in for years.
We've also seen rigorous debate about walled gardens and how they will operate in a cookieless future. It's true that walled gardens offer benefits, but they will come at a cost because of the limited reporting data provided to advertisers, among other things. As we move into the new year, it will be important to support industry-wide identity solutions, such as Unified ID 2.0, RampID, NetID and more. These promise to break down those walls and support an industry-wide push for open access to data when it is used responsibly.
By having the right data protection and privacy controls in place, it’s possible to show consumers the value exchange between advertising and content, allowing buyers and sellers to achieve the outcomes they're looking for. In 2022, partnerships and industry collaboration will be key in supporting an open internet that gives everyone a fair shot.
Political advertising is now a year-round consideration
Naturally, political advertising in 2022 will be a focus for the industry year-round. But as the number of political advertising regulations continues to increase at both the state and federal level, there is growing concern among buyers looking to reach engaged voter audiences at scale.
Even though 2022 is not a presidential election year, overall political spend in 2022 is projected to be roughly the same as 2020. That offers a huge opportunity for CTV to continue playing a critical role in reaching voters for key races and down-ballot elections.
Media planning is in full swing ahead of the 2022 election cycle, and buyers will be on the hunt for platforms that can best support their needs. That's why Xandr has invested time and resources to ensure that it stays at the forefront of political advertising, including complying with federal, state and local laws, as well as making improvements to help buyers target voters in key geographical areas at a granular level.
The year 2022 will be another exciting year of growth and innovation for programmatic advertising. As we continue to make progress toward a more open ecosystem, the pillars of CTV, identity and political ad spend will be central industry considerations in the year to come.
