The Rising Tide of CTV, OTT and Addressable TV

Today, Cadent published a white paper exploring marketer sentiment around emerging television mediums called, “TV’s New Wave: Marketers Take on the Shift to OTT, CTV, & Addressable.” The report and research was done in partnership with Brand Innovators and TV[R]EV.

CTV, addressable, and advanced advertising are poised to play a major role in the next wave of growth in the TV advertising ecosystem, with 72% of respondents saying that in two to five years, CTV and other data-driven TV methods of advertising will be critical in reaching brand audiences. Sixty-six percent of respondents said an audience-first TV buying approach will be table stakes in the near future.

As consumers rapidly shift their viewing to streaming and increase their overall time with screens, marketers understand the need to make connected TV (CTV) and other advanced advertising techniques a greater part of their overall marketing strategies – if they haven’t already. Fifty-nine percent of marketers surveyed currently run CTV ads, with the top three reasons being wide audience reach, sophisticated targeting capabilities and “lighter ad loads keep audiences engaged.” 

Other highlights included: 

• Sixty-two percent of respondents said they consider television, both traditional linear TV and CTV, to be a more premium advertising environment than web videos offering mid-roll or pre-roll advertising. The top two reasons these respondents saw CTV as superior to digital video were brand safety, saying “digital video could wind up on many sites that are not brand safe or next to content that is not brand safe,” and fraud, adding that “CTV has less ad fraud than online video.”
• There’s confusion around terminology. Four out of ten respondents said OTT meant “ad-supported or subscription TV services delivered via an internet connection to any device”—through a TV, laptop, or mobile device. Fourteen percent said OTT referred to “any type or length of video programming,” and 5 percent said it meant “live and/or on-demand video content from cable companies delivered via an internet connection.” Thirty-five percent answered “all of the above,” and 5 percent said they weren’t sure what the term meant.
• Cost was viewed as the key limitation to CTV advertising, with 32 percent of respondents flagging it as too expensive. Other challenges included too hard to buy at scale (27 percent) and too hard to measure (28 percent). Surprisingly, 32 percent of respondents said they were “unsure” as to what the key disadvantages of CTV advertising were.

This report is based on the results of a comprehensive survey undertaken by Brand Innovators and TV[R]EV that was sent out to over 15,000 leading brand marketers between June and August 2020.

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