4 themes crucial to addressable TV’s future

Connected TV World Summit

Scale, transparency, measurement and collaboration are the key themes as addressable TV develops.

That’s according to Annie Shearer, head of video at EssenceMediacomX, who spoke on a panel at day two of Connected TV World Summit 2024,

“We need to make sure there’s scale, so we’re not just repeating frequency,” “Shearer said. “It’s about being transparent — being upfront with the data you’ve got with clients. Thirdly, measurement — working with providers so we’re able to tap in and see all the activity that’s going on.”

Crucial to the success of measurement is collaboration, as Shearer explained: “What we love to see from the broadcast space is collaboration and working together.” While “in an amazing world” agencies would have one point of access to see data across all platforms, she conceded that “that’s probably further down the road”.

Knowing your consumers

During the session, ITV and Sky discussed how their first-party data underpin their advertising offerings.

Jayesh Rajdev, controller of advanced advertising at ITV, said: “Our first-party data sits at the absolute heart of what we offer to advertisers. We know where [the audiences] are, we know where they live, we know their rudimentary demographics. What we’ve been building is our dataset to become more digital, more full-funnel.”

Dan Cohen, Sky’s director of product and advertising innovation, described two key sets of first-party data the broadcaster possesses. First, a viewing panel that now spans 4m, offering “an unbelievable amount of insight”.

He continued: “The other one that will become more important is: we know who our customers are. It’s not an email address, it’s not an IP address. People have to pay us every month — we have their address. It’s a hard, unique ID.”

Proprietary data is used in conjunction with third-party data such as shopper and retail for even better targeting.

At the same time, brands in categories such as finance and travel are building entire teams to better understand the mid-funnel, Rajdev explained: “More and more of those teams are starting to wake up to the opportunity that streaming services can provide in that space. There’s no smarter signal than your own data.”

All of this allows Planet V, ITV’s programmatic self-serve ad platform, to attract fresh advertisers. “We’ve seen dozens of new advertisers who’d never used ITV before,” Rajdev said. “They’re looking for a better advertising experience ­– not just in terms of signal but measurement.”

Robust measurement

Indeed, as addressable TV evolves, it’s crucial to have robust measurement frameworks.

“When we’re looking at measurement, we’re also looking effectiveness,” Shearer stressed.

Cohen agreed that there needs to be clarity. “One impression isn’t equal to one impression. Scrolling through something on your phone isn’t the same as an immersive experience on the big screen,” he said. “It’s going be about outcomes and all the different things you want to do — and that could lead to new trading models in the future.”

Looking forward, shoppable advertising is one key area to watch. While the US is ahead of the UK in terms of progress, according to Shearer, “the outlook is a lot of CTV [connected TV] ads will become shoppable at some point” — although the format won’t suit every advertiser. For example, a car brand will not expect to sell its product through a shoppable ad.

While Rajdev acknowledged that “getting your phones in front of your CTV remains a clunky experience”, he is optimistic about shoppable TV: “If we do get the advertising experience right, and the viewing experience around that right, people will respond. People may not buy, but they might inquire.”

Beyond shoppable ads, Cohen believes it’s about different formats to suit shifting trends. “Something like 60% of 16-24s watch things with subtitles on and sound off. What opportunities does that open up within the content? We’re all going to have to work out managing the shifting trends to make sure we have solutions that appeal to all.”

Shearer concluded: “It’s getting harder to reach audiences, so the way we’re doing it has to be smarter. Clients have to be sure they’re spending money in the right place.”

Cohen concurred: “Our job is to make things as easy as possible for buying — that’s got to be a focus.”

The talk was chaired by Paul Gubbins, vice-president, CTV strategy, at Publica.