No matter what industry you’re in, when you get together with other professionals to discuss the future and what’s possible, something magical happens. That’s exactly what we experienced at Adweek’s CommerceWeek event on February 28.
Rosie O’Meara, GroundTruth’s CRO, sat down with Evan Moore, SVP, Commerce Partnerships at NBCUniversal and William Bradley, Adweek Editor, to discuss all things Connected TV (CTV), including why companies should invest right now. (Hint: undeniable ROAS).
If you weren’t able to make the event, we pulled some of the best moments to recap it all here for you.
The Current State of CTV Advertising
The group started the discussion with the state of CTV right now. Moore touched on the fact that we’re experiencing “a re-discovery of television for the modern age.” He said, “Advertisers can earn ROAS from CTV that they’ve been getting from digital channels” up until this point.
O’Meara agreed, adding that some estimates put ad spending on CTV at $30 billion in 2024. This year is also the first year that cord-cutting households surpassed linear households. That means, not only are the younger generations using CTV more, but older generations are also adopting CTV, providing advertisers with an incredible opportunity to reach audiences across a wide range of demographics and interests.
Benefits of Advertising on CTV Right Now
All the numbers indicate that CTV is a smart investment for marketers, but in today’s world, with marketing budgets under tremendous scrutiny, companies want more than a good idea. They want a sure thing. And O’Meara and Moore both agreed that CTV is as close as you can get at this point.
O’Meara said, “CTV is a performance channel that can work at any stage of the funnel. It’s a device where people are co-viewing. They stream while looking at their phone or tablet. If your ad mix includes both CTV and mobile, for example, it’s a 1+1=3 situation.”
Moore echoed that sentiment, pointing out, “TV is exclusively for entertainment. We might use our phone or desktop for entertainment, too, but it’s also a tool for work and communicating. We give TV a different level of attention and engagement than we do other screens.”
Later in the discussion, Bradley brought up the fact that this year is an election year, which means ad spend will increase for everyone, not just political advertisers. O’Meara suggested that is another reason CTV is an important investment for performance marketers this year. “Remember in linear TV when you’d get bumped? Your ad can’t get bumped because of political coverage on CTV!”
Sounds like a no-brainer to us!
The Future of CTV
Of course, in a room full of marketers, the discussion inevitably turns to what’s possible. The panel, with some prompting from Bradley, started brainstorming what the future of CTV could look like.
As with most conversations, this one turned to AI quickly. O’Meara said that while companies were “data, data, data for so long” AI is helping “turn attention back to creative” by helping to optimize the ads. But more importantly, recommendation engines where advertisers can use data from others in their industry to inform their media mix, timing, and spend level across campaigns.
In the distant future, O’Meara said she was excited for the day people get used to making big purchases through their TVs. She reminded the crowd how we used to be weary of making big ticket purchase on our phone, and now it’s second nature. That same adoption can happen with CTV, which is excellent news for advertisers.
Overall, it was an exciting discussion full of insights and inspiring ideas for the future.
Launch a CTV Campaign with GroundTruth
If you want to learn how GroundTruth can help you launch a CTV campaign that layers in a performance component (think driving foot traffic to your stores, incremental sales, or simply, higher ROAS), contact us today. We’ll show you how easy it is to turn real-world behavior into marketing that drives real business results.
