In 2019, digital video viewership was booming. With major media companies like Disney (among others) launching standalone streaming T/V services, we’re seeing a rise in consumers choosing OTT over cable and CTV leading as the primary screen of choice. This increasing shift from linear to digital is rife with challenges—OTT measurement is especially complicated, contributing to ad dollars not exactly following the eyeballs.
Plus, there are further issues with tackling the convergence of traditional TV and digital, as well as how to comply with CCPA. Yet, despite these myriad challenges, there are ripe opportunities for greater collaboration within the industry with an eye toward solving these problems going into 2020.
SpotX recently released their 2020 Vision Report, which includes six key predictions for TV and video advertising based on a survey of 15 industry experts across the video landscape including Disney, Vizio, Roku and more.
OEM’s Growing Role in OTT Ad Monetization
Chief among the opportunities in the booming digital video age is data activation and the role that device manufacturers will play in OTT ad monetization.
“We’re looking now at how to collect first-party data across screens, repackage it across our own media and then offer inventory where we can target users against this data and provide actionable campaign findings,” says Nyma Quidwai, Sr. Manager of Business Development & Advertising at Vizio.
In a similar vein, TiVo recently announced a new partnership with SpotX to power the monetization of TiVo+ and TiVo’s CTV inventory across its entire footprint.
“At TiVo, we are committed to providing premium Connected TV (CTV) advertising offerings for media buyers. Our best-in-class user experience, highly engaged viewers and insights from audience data offer a unique opportunity for advertisers and TiVo+ content partners to effectively communicate their marketing messages within TiVo’s premium environment,” said Walt Horstman, SVP and GM of Data and Advertising at TiVo. “We chose SpotX as our SSP because they are proven industry leaders in the rapidly growing CTV advertising ecosystem with unique expertise in the market.”
Players like Vizio, TiVo, Roku, Samsung, and Amazon not only hold troves of valuable data about their audiences, they’re also in a key position to facilitate cross-platform measurement and collaboration across the industry.
The Rise of Programmatic Direct
There’s also a growing shift toward programmatic direct, according to the report.
“I believe we’ll see more programmatic guaranteed campaigns because of the efficiency of automation with the personal assurances of traditional direct sales, eliminating the laborious emails and tags and invoices that have always plagued manual direct buys,” says Matt Barnes, Sr. Director, Programmatic, Sales & Strategy at Disney Advertising Sales.
First-party Data For the Win
In a digital media world where consumer experience and data privacy take priority, in order to deliver on the promises of digital publishers and advertisers and their ad tech partners must find secure ways to activate data while building audience trust.
“Major media owners and brands have continued to raise the priority of first-party data activation within their advertising strategies, while a number of large agency holding companies have placed massive financial bets acquiring their own data platforms. This will open up new opportunities for improved segmentation, refined targeting, and greater insight. First-party data, enabled with careful consideration to privacy will become increasingly critical in an environment with increasing regulation and scrutiny,” says Sean Buckley, CRO at SpotX.
The top six digital video trends of 2020 include:
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Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have an opportunity to facilitate cross-platform measurement and collaboration.
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Programmatic guaranteed will arrive as a major video transaction type.
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Consumer experience takes center stage.
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The challenges of a hyper-fragmented video inventory will increase.
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Data activation is a key value proposition and a lucrative asset for media owners.
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Live OTT and gaming drive industry adoption.
To learn more about these six TV and video advertising trends for 2020 and gain insights from the industry’s major players, check out SpotX’s 2020 Vision Report.