Highlights from CES 2024: The Future of Identity, Currency, and CTV

Earlier this month, CES took center stage in Las Vegas, attracting over 130,000 attendees – an encouraging rebound from recent years. From the bustling excitement around flying taxis and a voice-activated Mercedes to transparent TVs and robot dogs running around hotel lobbies, the event showcased the latest developments in technology. One common thread tied these innovations together: Artificial Intelligence (AI).  

As you walked the journey from one end of the strip to the other, the conference revealed not just consumer-focused advancements but also significant advancements in the world of adtech, where AI is playing a pivotal role in customizing ads, improving relevancy, doing more with less investment and increasing workflow efficiencies. Now that CES has ended, here are our key learnings from the event and how we think they will impact the future of TV advertising.  

Consideration for Cookie Depreciation  

After Google followed through on its promise, the prevailing concern discussed at CES was cookie depreciation. Despite preparations on both the buy and sell sides, skepticism lingers about the timeline for the cookie’s complete dissolution – particularly as early issues surface. Fragmented audiences and channels have made connecting the dots across devices and platforms challenging. Yet regardless of whether advertisers can leverage cookies, our media ecosystem demands a unification strategy. Bridging the gap between linear and digital performance for cross-screen targeting and measurement will be a priority for advertisers and publishers.  

Living in a Multi-Currency World 

Measurement and currency continue to be top of mind with expectations of further consolidation in 2024. Outcome-based measurement is also gaining in popularity, emphasizing the value marketers are placing on results. Brands are increasingly demanding that agencies address fragmentation and seamlessly execute cross-screen campaigns, making orchestration across planning, buying, activation, optimization, and measurement imperative. We expect performance-led buying will be a key trend over the next year. Welcome the new term “Performant” based advertising. 

First-Party Data Moves to the Top of the Heap 

This past year we saw the massive rise of retail media. As the influence and ubiquity of retail media networks have grown, so has the need for first-party data. And to leverage the power of first-party data in a safe, privacy-compliant way, there is an increased need for clean rooms. At CES, clean rooms have shifted from being merely mentioned to being the focal point of practical use cases about targeting and measurement. To address first-party data’s issues of scale, synchronization of first-party and third-party data will be essential. In turn, this will promote increased usage of API (Application Programming Interface) over UI (User Interface) solutions, reducing “swivel-chair” interactions between platforms. 

If Digital is a Square Peg, TV is a Round Hole 

Despite the abundance of solutions available, we continue to see digital solutions indiscriminately applied to TV – even though things like match rates and measurement results are below expectations. We suspect that resistance to change, multi-year agreements, risk aversion, and difficulty in proving new platforms have hindered progress. The lack of a standardized identifier has only exacerbated the long list of roadblocks. Additionally, many platforms are missing key signals or do not have the scale needed for effective cross-screen execution. Successful audience extension – the ability to extend campaigns from linear TV to CTV or other digital media such as OLV (online video) and display – will require solutions that are native to advanced TV and have never relied on a cookie. 

The Need for Flexible End-to-End Solutions 

The challenges of cookie depreciation, measurement currency, outcome-based measurement, first-party data onboarding and activation, and true cross-screen campaigns discussed at CES highlight the importance of flexible end-to-end solutions. Cadent Aperture Platform provides a simplified approach to omnichannel advertising. Offering a streamlined workflow, it seamlessly unifies identity, data, and inventory with integrated partners across CTV, OLV, display, and linear TV. Aperture Platform facilitates comprehensive campaign management from audience targeting to performance analysis. Combining the agility of programmatic buying with the precision of direct IO, Aperture Platform is a singular, streamlined environment. 

As the industry navigates through shifting consumer habits and the evolution of identity, advertisers, and publishers need tools to help meet their needs now and in the future. Find out how Cadent can help.