2024 will be an inflection point for Connected TV (CTV) advertisers as political advertising becomes a prevalent part of the CTV space and new creative formats emerge to elevate the CTV advertising experience.
Consolidation of streaming platforms is likely as competing streamers look to stay competitive or exit what has become an oversaturated market—potentially paving the way for a less fragmented market for advertisers.
Despite CTV being a cookieless environment, evolving data privacy laws and the impending deprecation of third-party cookies will likely have some impact on advertisers’ ability to target and measure campaigns.
What’s next for CTV–the fastest-growing digital advertising channel?
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There was more than enough insight and ideas shared at the conference to be covered in multiple blog posts, but these are the five most impactful topics from the event for nonprofits and professional associations looking to get more involved in the CTV space.
2024 is the year of the political advertiser on CTV
With major elections looming in the United States and in other countries around the world, CTV is an especially enticing advertising opportunity for campaign teams this year. CTV was certainly around during the last presidential election in 2020; however, there’s little doubt that 2024 is the first time that CTV will be a key factor in the political advertising space.
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65% of likely voters prefer streaming to traditional linear TV
82% of likely voters use ad-supported streaming services
88% of streaming TV viewers are watching with others in the room (i.e., co-viewing)
Although Interactive Strategies doesn’t work directly in the politics vertical, many of our nonprofit and professional association clients have some overlap with the political space. And these trends reflect clear benefits to organizations looking to motivate potential donors or association members to act.
“Shoppable TV” and the evolution of TV creative
Moving beyond what you would normally associate with TV commercials was a key talking point of several sessions at CTV Connect. For decades, TV advertising creative has largely been confined to standard 15-, 30-, and 60-second spots featuring the usual mix of brand messaging, high-quality video, etc., but advertisers and publishers alike are making a push to develop more engaging formats that both reduce creative development time and spur action from consumers.
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Consolidation of streaming platforms is almost a certainty
If you’ve started to feel like there are too many streaming platforms to keep track of these days—either subscription-based or ad-supported—you’re not alone. The slow decline of traditional cable TV subscriptions has been a boon for streamers, but a feeling that the market is now oversaturated with streaming options is starting to creep into publishers’ and advertisers’ minds.
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Campaign measurement and transparency from publishers remain key pain points for advertisers
Any advertiser who’s been in the connected TV space over the past couple of years knows that measuring key outcomes has always been more difficult in this channel compared to traditional digital placements.
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Another key pain point advertisers encounter in the CTV space is in trying to understand not only who is seeing their ads but also what content their ads are showing up alongside. Currently, only a few streaming platforms will share high-level breakdowns of where ads showed up in inventory packages (these are usually broken down as impression share percentages alongside things like content genre), but many are unable or unwilling to go that far.
This sentiment was expressed multiple times throughout CTV Connect, but the potential privacy law implications and the fact that publishers simply don’t always want to hand over that data have created an impasse, at least for now. It remains to be seen what the path forward looks like in this regard, but as of today, CTV advertisers will simply have to go without the data that shows what shows or movies their target audiences are watching.
CTV advertising will be impacted by third-party cookie deprecation and ever-changing data privacy laws
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Insights
Insight
4 ways to revolutionize your association's marketing strategy
In early March, the Interactive Strategies team made its way to New York City for the inaugural CTV Connect event. Over two days, we heard from some of the biggest players in the connected TV space, including Disney, Amazon, NBCUniversal, Google, Magnite, IAB, Nielsen, and Paramount. The conversations revealed emerging CTV advertising trends that will shape the future of streaming, from political ad strategies to innovative creative formats and evolving measurement challenges.
Numerous sessions during CTV Connect touched on the opportunities and intricacies of CTV advertising for political organizations, and there was a clear sense that this advertising channel will no longer be viewed simply as a supplement to larger traditional TV buys. Moreover, survey data shared by LG Ad Solutions CMO Tony Marlow on day one of the event accentuated the fact that consumers, especially likely voters, have a growing affinity for streaming services. You can download the full report here, but some of the key points shared include:
QR codes, “L-Bar” creative, and other “shoppable” formats were pervasive throughout the event, and much of the discourse at the conference seemed to center on the idea that many consumers would be willing to engage directly with CTV ad placements if only the ad creative allowed them to do so. It’s an intriguing opportunity, especially for nonprofits focused on driving immediate action, but it remains to be seen if CTV is truly ready to emerge as a lower-funnel, conversion-inducing tactic.
Despite any headwinds the biggest players such as Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Apple TV+ might be facing, these companies have been able to sustain growth or, at the very least, buoy their streaming offerings with other business units. For some of the smaller players like Peacock and Paramount+, it’s becoming increasingly obvious just how expensive it is to compete with the streaming giants. As a result, consolidation of the platforms in the CTV space was top of mind for many people at the conference.
It's difficult to predict exactly how mergers or outright shuttering of streaming platforms would impact the CTV advertising space, but consolidation of platforms would almost certainly lead to consolidation of audiences. If nothing else, a smaller number of platforms would make it far easier for advertisers to streamline their media buying efforts to reach target audiences, albeit at the expense of inventory variety.
Perhaps it’s simply a misalignment in expectations—advertisers have been given the same types of controls for CTV campaigns as they have for other digital advertising efforts, so they expect to be able to measure things the same way despite the nuances of TV-viewing compared to reaching users on mobile or desktop devices. Regardless, even as conversion tracking from demand-side platforms like Google DV360 and MNTN has taken large steps forward over the past few years, there was a clear narrative at CTV Connect that advertisers are still looking for more data in understanding exactly what type of impact their campaigns have on business outcomes.
Whether due to stubborn optimism or a misreading of CTV’s cookieless environment, many advertisers have assumed that the impending third-party cookie deprecation won’t have a substantial impact on CTV campaign targeting and measurement. While it’s true that the death of third-party cookies won’t fundamentally change the CTV landscape, on-stage sessions with publishers and advertisers clearly indicated that further degradation of identity graphs will make every form of digital advertising more difficult.
In addition to conversations surrounding identity and measurement durability in the year ahead, data privacy laws and regulations were also in full view. A session from Jessica Lee near the end of the conference was especially illuminating as it highlighted how ever-changing regulations and interpretations of data privacy laws could pose major challenges to advertisers and publishers alike. In particular, the IP address, which has long underpinned the targeting and measurement of CTV advertising, is being scrutinized for potentially being considered personally identifiable information. There’s no indication that advertisers and publishers will need to abandon the IP address-based framework imminently, especially because the United States lacks comprehensive federal regulation in this space, but the message is clear: Data privacy laws are getting even more difficult to navigate.
