We find ourselves delving into the topic related to Connected and Addressable TV a few days after Engage Conference, the event organized by Edimaker in collaboration with UPA, entitled “Advanced TV, the video convergence” in which we participated as the main sponsor.
Present and future of advanced TV, video-convergence, evolution of business models, experimentation, innovation and measurement: there were really a lot of topics discussed during the day.
Matteo Torelli, Chief Sales of Blendee, presented the peculiarities of Blendee and, in the company of Simone Branca, Head of Adtech and Data at Rai Pubblicità, talked about his experience and collaboration with Rai Pubblicità in the broadcast field.
Linear TV is evolving, CTVs (connected TVs) are already the present, even in advertising.
But what are the peculiarities and prospects?
Let’s clarify and start with some definitions!
Connected TV: a look at the data
Vast amount of content to choose from and the possibility to access it as and when you want: connected TVs are conquering more and more viewers, even in Italy.
According to data released by Fabrizio Angelini, CEO of Sensemakers, during Engage Conference, more than 57% of Italians now watch TV from an internet-connected device.
As of today there are 19 million connected devices, +11% compared to last year, with 12.4 million households and 32.8 million individuals affected by the phenomenon.
Smart TV, in Italy, is conquering more inhabitants in central northern Italy, with 61% in Lazio, 53% in Lombardy and 52% in Tuscany.
Although traditional TV still shows a good level of resilience, the CTV phenomenon can no longer go unnoticed.
But what do we mean by CTV?
The term “Connected TV” is defined as any device that connects to or is integrated into a TV and enables the enjoyment of streaming content.
The growing popularity of CTV has seen the gradual establishment of over-the-top ( OTT) service players in the market, i.e., related to the delivery of TV/video content directly from the Web, in streaming or video-on-demand (VOD) mode.
Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime have thus joined the big players in traditional TV who have also rethought their offerings in the digital sphere (RaiPlay and Mediaset Infinitiy).
To return to the data: the rise of CTV and OTT is leading to a new phenomenon called “cord-cutting,” or the growing trend of customers abandoning traditional cable and satellite TV subscriptions in favor of streaming services.
Connected and Addressable TV: new opportunities for the advertising world
Alongside data showing that connected TV is a phenomenon in great ferment, it is interesting to note that users of such services rate media advertising positively and, according to research conducted by Ipsos, say they are willing to watch ads in exchange for free content.
It is a phenomenon, therefore, that cannot be overlooked by marketers and media buyers.
From the data presented by Federica Setti, spokesperson Media Hub UNA and Chief Research Officer of GroupMA, also at Engage Conference, in fact,advanced TV will be worth more than 381 million euros in Italy in2023, with a growth compared to 2022 of as much as 29 percentage points and with a share of 10.5 percent of total TV advertising.
Leading the way is the video format, which alone is worth about 50 percent of total investment, with 4.9 million in advertising sales, of which TV is worth 3.6 billion and online video 1.2 billion.
New advertising models and formats, but not only that: connected TVs have paved the way for the addressable TV, or a new way of delivering TV ads that are based on personalization: specific ads deliverable through a combination of technology and audience segmentation.
If linear TV, from an advertising point of view, has always referred to the GRP (Gross Raiting Point) or the advertising pressure exerted with respect to a specific target audience in a given time interval, today digital TV allows for segmenting users on the basis of program viewing habits, just as it does on the Web.
In essence, brands no longer purchase advertising space within a program based on the target audience generically associated with that program, but rather on the basis of household characteristics and, at the same time, on the basis of content consistent with the target audience
Connected TV: what strategy and…what KPIs?
The world of connected TV, data in hand, is indeed a universe all to conquer, but also to build.
Two hitherto parallel universes, that of linear TV and the digital world, now find themselves extremely close. And while the goals are certainly well understood, strategies and measurement models are still all in the making
Most brands to date are leveraging CTV incrementally with strategies both aimed at increasing linear TV reach (in 72 percent) and digtial (22 percent).
The addressable approach to TV is rapidly evolving the medium, and while investments are also growing rapidly, what seems to be most lacking at the moment is an unambiguous metric to measure their return.
Only by understanding the KPIs to be employed and how to measure the effectiveness of campaigns can the full potential of CTV and Addressable TV be exploited.
