Future of TV Ads in Digital World

Television continues to play a central role in the way that we consume news and entertainment, whether the content comes from a traditional network or via a streaming service. While viewing habits have shifted, cords have been cut and mobile phones have become first screens, we still like watching TV. We still define the content we watch as a “television program” and we often still want to view that content on a TV set in our living room or den.

In many cases, TV set is just one of many screens that we are cycling through as we participate in social media conversations. Our viewing habits have been evolving ever since cable was introduced in the 1970s and they will no doubt continue to change. But for now, TV in its new and advanced form remains a central part of the media ecosystem.

As streaming and over-the-top (OTT) distribution models have matured, a new umbrella term has emerged to describe what TV has become: Advanced TV. It represents the convergence of old-style linear TV with streaming video delivered through OTT platforms and digitally enabled connected TVs. Marketers and brands must grapple with all that Advanced TV offers because it provides marketers with a full-screen captive experience with the targeting power of digital.

Advanced TV enables marketers to optimize reach and influence today’s hyperconnected consumer. Marketers can now serve the most impactful advertising content, trigger campaigns that sync with local events or weather conditions, deliver ads based on first-party data and get real-time analytics of viewing habits, depending on the sophistication of the TV platform, network and/or provider.

Currently, Smart TVs, OTT devices such as Apple TV or Roku, game consoles such as PlayStation and connected TVs offer the most digital bells and whistles, but more and more households are becoming directly addressable through the cable and satellite providers, meaning that brands can target individual households within the broadcast environment of linear TV.

There is not currently a unified measurement standard that aligns broadcast and digital reach, and audience targeting is still complex. Nielsen released its cross-media measurement solution, Total Content Ratings, after media companies reportedly pressured Nielsen to slow down the rollout because it was not ready for prime time. Privacy is a key consideration that must be navigated.  However, emerging measurement and data techniques are arriving from all corners of the industry, with the ability to provide more advanced data than ever before, helping marketers to more easily reach their objectives.

How Startups can use Programmatic Television Advertising

Marketing and Promotion is all about taking your product or service to the right target audience at the pre-decided time, and in an efficient way. How cool it would be if this bang-on strategy could work as well for startup companies like it does for the established ones. The big positive differentiator for the large and well-known brands is that they are already empowered with huge resources and can strike gold relatively faster and far more easily than their smaller counterparts.

On the other hand, it’s really a roughhouse for the startups as they scramble to arrive at the right strategy and media plan because they are restricted by limited resources in terms of effort, finance and time. Things are changing now, by new technology called Programmatic TV (PTV), which is the automation of TV advertisement buying/selling process, based on audience preferences. Now we have a data driven media buying process already accepted in the digital media – that brings buyers and sellers on to an automated marketplace, making the experience simpler and more efficient. PTV ads are placed intelligently based on audience data to help you reach your target audiences.

This technology based platform empowers the media planners and buyers by automating the optimization and execution process for traditional TV Advertising. The traditional TV buying process, like all long-established ones, is well institutionalized in the industry, but over time, has gotten into a lapse and so and now has its challenges. In addition, it offers only an approximate plan to reach the desired target audience, which means the ad may or may find the bull's eye before considerable money has already been spent. This is particularly painful for startups as they struggle to find their feet in a crowded and competitive market and have to smarten up.

Currently, media buying professionals are using their precious time and energy in manual work and processes such as request for proposals, order for ad insertions and waiting for confirmations. This is usually done through scores of emails, faxes and spreadsheets. With the entry of PTV, media buyers will have access to the convenience of a scientific approach that helps do away with the time-consuming, laborious and often less-efficient ways of the manual TV advertising buying model.

So, when they opt for programmatic buying, it helps create a customized dashboard for each product/service that their marketers want to promote and enables them to track the campaign’s performance for the desired target audience and other performance metrics that are relevant to the marketer. It’s all about getting the right inventory in a way that ensures optimization of the ROI from the advertisement.

Traditional TV advertising involves shifting through huge and complex number of choices of channels and programs. PTV comes with the technology to filter the massive data mining and analytics and aids strategic decision making. With an automated buying and scheduling, marketers/advertisers can effectively target their existing and potential customers while also saving a lot of time and effort. PTV creates a marketplace where media buyers and sellers interact in an open and transparent manner.

Getting the right inventory through PTV is not just a boon for startups or small companies, but also for established brands. Given the large quantum of ads that big players are releasing to promote their products/services, it’s important to assess which ads are effective in influencing the target customers rather than running those which do not help in moving the needle. Today, most small companies, including startups, start reaching out their target customers through the digital advertising medium across social media, websites and online ads.

Smart phones have made this easy, enabling easy reach to new customers and this explains the rise in interest for digital advertising, especially among small businesses. As Business grows, companies feel the need to shift to the television medium. This is where PTV attempts to make a difference. It brings the sophistication and convenience of digital advertising to the popularity and reach of the TV medium.

PTV promises to change the dynamics of TV advertising as it works on making the processes simpler and cost-effective. The platform gives advertisers a range of options in audience buying, thereby maximizing the value of TV ad spots. With such time-consuming, chaotic processes out of their way, marketers can focus more and better on reaching the target customers. If a startup can learn the ropes of effective advertising on television through programmatic TV, they will be better positioned to speed up their scale up process even after they make it big.