Technology is evolving faster than we can blink and it’s becoming clear that it’s time creativity and control were reclaimed. As monopolies and walled gardens dominate and limit access, the balance between innovation and content creation is more crucial than ever. In a rapidly changing ecosystem,  publishers are exploring strategies to navigate an open internet increasingly challenged by distribution obstacles and signal loss.

Once a beacon of free and open access, the open web faces an identity crisis. Media companies that once thrived on direct consumer connection are struggling with the rise of walled gardens. Marketers, for their part, acknowledge their role in building these silos as they increasingly funnel media budgets into tech giants. Reclaiming control of data, creative strategies, and audience engagement is critical to preserving the future for both sides.

Publishers should not look at these shifts as threats but as opportunities to develop new strategies that align with consumer behavior and market demands. 

From the rise of social-driven search and FAST channels to Google’s ongoing antitrust trial, ProgIO spoke to many of the challenges facing publishers today. As the industry continues to push for transparency, fairness, and a more open ecosystem, the path forward depends on innovating while maintaining trust with consumers and each other. 

Here are our top takeaways from Day 1.

Breaking Free: How Marketers Can Reclaim Creativity in a Tech-Driven World

Eoin Townsend, Chief Product Officer at Cadent, talking about convergence at programmatic IO. Photo by Donna Alberico.

Eoin Townsend, Chief Product Officer at Cadent, walked us through industry shifts driven by audience, inventory, optimality, and privacy. He says, “The technology we have today is not the technology we’ll have tomorrow.”

Let him tell it: marketers need more control to move away from monopolies and hone in on new technologies to transform their roles in the industry. Eoin emphasized that marketers spend too much time on tech rather than creative marketing. We are evolving from scale, automation, and walled gardens to a new phase focused on integration, alignment, and collaboration. 

More highlights from his talk:

• Let AI automate the hard stuff.
• Take advantage of multi-faceted solutions that integrate third-party data and work across walled gardens.
• Adopt new technology and legal frameworks to ensure compliance and consumer trust.

Eoin’s main argument is: “Let marketers be marketers” free them from technological constraints!

The Future of the Open Internet Is?

Allison Schiff, Managing Editor at AdExchanger, Ben Hovaness, CMO at OMD, Cavel Khan, Chief Growth Officer at Group Black, and Ari Paparo, CEO & Contributor of Marketecture Media discuss the future of the open internet. Photo by Donna Alberico.

What is the open web? The term has gotten lost in the mix, and AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff ensured the panelists revealed the definition from their perspectives early in the session. According to Ari Paparo, CEO & Contributor at Marketecture Media, if you can access a website for free and buy ads freely, it is part of the open web. 

Media companies are losing distribution channels and struggle to connect directly with consumers. What are the biggest challenges of the open web? Walled gardens and signal challenges. Can marketers blame consumers for this mess? Not exactly. Marketers helped create the walled gardens by continuing to invest in and work with them.

“The open internet lost the resources to create the content and do a lot of things that it did to keep the communities it had built,” revealed Cavel Khan, Chief Growth Officer at Group Black. “That’s why we are all seeing the decline over the last three years. Big publishers are going out of business or restructuring.”

More key points from this session:

• The cloudiness around Chrome’s plan for cookies makes it difficult for publishers to determine the best strategy to combat signal loss. 
• Publishers have great tools like WordPress, Beehiiv, and Ghost, along with podcasting, as new solutions for reaching people and monetizing those connections. 
• When asked what the future of the open internet was, the panelists responded bright, sleek, diverse, and changing. 

TikTok, The Latest to Step In the Search Game

AdExchanger’s Executive Editor Sarah Sluis sits down with Blake Chandlee, President of Global Business Solutions at TikTok, to talk about the platform entering the search business. Photo by Donna Alberico.

TikTok is the app beating Google as the number one search engine. With data showing significant search activity on the app, we’re learning that rich, social media-driven search results are key for connecting with consumers and influencing their discovery and purchase intent. It’s no surprise the company is investing in bringing advertising to search. 

“There are two key data points that triggered this for us. One is that independent research proves that 55% of people get their search results from social media and video,” said Blake Chandlee, President of Global Business Solutions at TikTok. “It was just a very good box of rich examples. An example might be if you’re planning to travel to Singapore when you visit a traditional search engine, you’d find links to guide you through that process. On the other hand, you go on to TikTok or some other platforms where you’ll get really rich videos of people like you going through the same decision-making with their experience. It’s a very different experience in the back end of this.”

Ads have been part of TikTok’s monetization model for a while now, but the TikTok shop shook up the game when it came to fruition last year. Live-streaming allows creators to earn money by getting “tipped” from their audience, while the TikTok shop facilitates seamless transitions within the app. TikTok’s investment in logistics and the closed-loop shopping experience allows it to fully capitalize on the commerce generated by creators.

More interesting insights:

• The social media company’s motto: “Don’t make ads, make TikTok’s” works.
• TikTok caters to its users’ diverse interests, allowing brands to connect with highly engaged audiences.
• Ensuring that ads are native is key; don’t oversaturate because ad fatigue can be real.
• TikTok stands out because it is independent and doesn’t rely on partnerships or external links for e-commerce.

Why The Trade Desk is Winning According to Wall Street

Shweta Khajuria, Managing Director of Wolfe Research shared her predictions for the industry from an investor’s perspective. Photo by Donna Alberico.

With the ongoing regulatory scrutiny of Google and the pending cookie deprecation, scale and first-party data are both emerging as leaders in the industry.

Shweta Khajuria, Managing Director at Wolfe Research, dove deeply into The Trade Desk’s success. Partnering with agencies leads to higher retention rates. Product innovations like CTV and UID2 have kept The Trade Desk at the top of the industry. Also, their independence and omnichannel approach allow them to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest. 

“Trade Desk saw the potential of bidded programmatic and connected TV before most others in the industry,” said Shweta. “As a result, with the head start that they saw, they saw a step change in their growth rates and trajectory.”

Shweta also predicts that Google will spin off one of its ad tech businesses, which could level the playing field. 

Shweta’s other predictions:

• The Trade Desk’s Open Path and Magnite’s clear line anticipate the convergence of the demand and supply sides.
• Efficiency gains will be necessary, and pricing pressures might arise as DSPs and SSPs merge.
• Larger publishers may develop their yield management systems, leading to supply-side consolidation.
• The demand side might gain an upper hand due to its proximity to ad budgets.

Google on Trial: The Battle for Fairness, Transparency, and the Future

Allison Schiff talked to Claire Atkin, Co-founder & CEO of Check My Ads and Jason Kint CEO of Digital Content Next about the ongoing DOJ vs. Google antitrust trial. Photo by Donna Alberico.

Google’s monopolistic practices have heavily hindered the publishing industry, and we are all standing on our toes, waiting to see the outcome of this decision. Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, explained how Google is extracting value that should go to newsrooms and entertainment companies. 

Jason talked about “dynamic revenue sharing,’ where Google manipulates bid prices to maintain its margins, often behind publishers’ backs. With a press box seat at the trial in Virginia, he says Google’s defense strategy is to confuse the market and redefine it to include more competition, like TikTok or TV. Isn’t this what we’ve all been thinking? Isn’t this a weak defense?

It was great seeing Claire Atkin again doing her best: exposing the real. According to Claire, Google plays a huge role in monetizing misinformation and lacking transparency. Smaller businesses suffer since they don’t receive funds or adequate support from Google when campaign issues arise. Claire argues for log-level data transparency and know-your-customer laws to ensure fair practices. 

Other important highlights:

• Judge Leonie Brinkema is skeptical of Google due to evidence purging, which impacts the credibility of Google’s witnesses. 
• The trial is part of a broader antitrust movement against major tech companies, and breaking them up could lead to more opportunities and fairness in the industry. 
• Both speakers hope to see a future where advertisers can better track and verify their ad placements, leading to more accountability and fewer fraudulent practices.

FAST is Moving Fast

Katie Barrett, Head of Strategic Sales at LG Ad Solutions talks the future of FAST at AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO Day 1. Photo by Donna Alberico.

Several factors are contributing to the rise of FAST, such as subscription fatigue and evolving audience behavior. On a daily basis, consumers are shifting their mindset from avoiding ads to accepting them if they come with free content. 

“We see that 53% of our consumers are spending at least 2 hours a day in FAST, and the average time of the session is 73 minutes,” said Katie Barrett, Head of Strategic Sales at LG Ad Solutions. “Eighty-seven percent of FAST users have free streaming channels they watch regularly. This shows high levels of habitual viewing. Eighty-one percent believe that FAST streaming channels offer high-quality content. This is important because this perception of fast being low quality is being challenged here.”

Contrary to popular belief that FAST viewers are less engaged or loyal, Katie argues they are developing strong followings due to curated content. The stereotype that FAST viewers are solely budget-conscious is false, as the data shows a diverse and affluent audience.

Other Factors of FAST:

• The median income of FAST users is $85,000, with an average of $110,000, and 43% earning over $100,000 annually. 
• FAST is popular among family units, with a high percentage of users owning homes, being married, and having children, underlining its family-friendly nature.
• FAST is a valuable platform for brands aiming to reach key demographics.

On the Horizon: A New Era for Publishers and Marketers

Publishers and marketers are standing on the brink of significant change. With walled gardens tightening their grip and signal loss challenging traditional methods, publishers are redefining their approach to audience engagement, while marketers are pushing for more autonomy in how they reach and connect with consumers. 

From publishers exploring innovative content distribution methods to marketers reclaiming creative control, the next chapter is about pushing beyond the familiar and embracing new opportunities. 

The journey doesn’t stop here. Day 2 included more revelations and strategies, so stay tuned for our Programmatic IO Day 2 wrap-up on Monday. We’ll dig deeper into the discussions, highlighting key takeaways and what lies ahead for publishers and marketers in this fast-moving space. 

The post PROGIO Day 1: The Next Chapter for the Open Internet, Google vs. DOJ Face-Off, and More appeared first on AdMonsters.

Will CTV pick the next president?

Political analysts often talk about the importance of a candidate’s ground game. In 2024, the winning candidates may determine who has the best streaming game. Indeed, as 2024 approaches–and portends some of the most intense races in US elections history– connected TV promises to play a pivotal, perhaps even deciding role. 

That is if campaign strategists–and the cadres of ad-buying specialists they typically deploy–recognize the opportunity before them and are willing to throw away convention.

To win in 2024, political advertisers must prepare to rethink decades’ worth of proven strategies while maximizing their data assets to take advantage of the television’s fast-evolving, advanced targeting capabilities.

A Very Conservative Couple of Parties

Historically, political campaigns–particularly presidential ones–have stuck with a tried and true playbook for getting out the vote. Unlike traditional brands, this isn’t an area where you can afford to ‘test and learn. After all, if a campaign’s media buying strategy doesn’t pan out, it doesn’t just lead to a bad quarter–but the brand in question suddenly goes out of business.

Therefore, media conservatism reigns for both sides of the aisle.

Many recent candidates have embraced digital platforms (remember Bernie Sanders on Snapchat?) — they centered a large portion of this activity around collecting names and fundraising. While President Joe Biden and former President Trump spent $360 million on Facebook and Google in 2020, the two candidates doled out a stunning $1 billion on TV ads in just 13 states, reported NPR. As has long been the case, they focused most of that spending on linear TV, particularly local TV stations in critical districts.

Of course, we know that 2020 was already a long time ago in media time. Over the past few years, the TV terrain has changed radically. For example:

• Cord cutting has accelerated; per Nielsen, cable TV viewership now accounts for just 30% of TV viewing.
• Video viewership has quickly shifted to streaming and social video.
• A new generation of viewers has never had cable and consumes TV with a streaming-first mentality; for the first time this past summer, streaming accounted for most of TV consumption.

Here’s the hard and scary truth for political and traditionalists–given the confluence of these consumer behavioral shifts, a sizable portion of the electorate is simply unreachable through classic political advertising tactics.

Deciding to ignore a significant pool of potential voters, well, that’s not a winning strategy.

The CTV Election

If 2020 seemed like a particularly intense race, wait. Experts predict political brands will dole out a record $10 billion in the US in 2024.

Yet, there is a risk that many of those dollars might go to waste if political operatives don’t fully embrace and master CTV.

Thankfully, the recent growth in ad-supported streaming provides political spenders far more options. Not only have top services such as Max, Netflix, and Disney+ recently rolled out ad-supported options for consumers, but many of these companies are cracking down on password sharing while offering pricing plans that encourage new users to opt for advertising. 

Plus, the growth in free ad-supported services (the FAST category) continues to impress. There are many more outlets for political spenders to recapture much of linear TV’s lost reach.

However, that’s only part of the story. So many more options are available today for candidates to use their TV dollars more strategically. Streaming platforms have positioned themselves to offer political advertisers an edge, enabling them to tailor their messages with unmatched precision. 

Several campaigns saw CTV success in the 2022 midterms as they moved away from cookie-based tactics. Those advancements should only continue. For instance, most major streaming platforms have partnered with clean room tech firms, which should enable political campaigns to use their existing email databases to target interested votes.

In addition, during CTV campaigns, these candidates should be able to derive deeper insights from granular user data, allowing them to make adjustments mid-flight. Overall, CTV should offer a sharper targeting edge compared to linear platforms.

Yet, given these advertisers’ media buying experience, maximizing the CTV opportunity won’t happen by flipping a switch. Now is the time for political brands to take the steps needed to become masters of CTV ad targeting.

That means ensuring they make the best use of their data via the right technology and partners. They’ll need new talent and processes to optimize campaigns with speed and agility.

They’ll also need to start evaluating and pressure testing vehicles like data clean rooms and new forms of addressable CTV advertising today.

At the same time, the streamers have a job to do to capture what should be a potential 2024 windfall. Media companies must craft products and services to cater to these somewhat novice brands. Political campaigns may need training, customized tools, and tailored research. They need reliable attribution systems, as every dollar and vote counts.

The Race Is On

The 2024 political season, particularly the presidential race, will be more competitive and likely more volatile than ever. As we’ve seen in several local battles, a handful of votes can determine the difference between winning and losing, so every potential voter reached will be essential.

Therefore, the political ad teams that reorient their media focus on the need to go after those ‘unreachable voters,’ with as much targeting sophistication as possible, will be the ones that prove to be winners on Election Day.

The post The Uncharted Terrain: Political Advertising in 2024’s Streaming Ecosystem appeared first on AdMonsters.

In the constantly evolving age of cord-cutting, CTV continues to grow at alarming rates. It won’t stop anytime soon. 

Some see sports as linear’s saving grace, but with live sports more prevalent than ever on CTV, only time will tell if linear has a lasting impact. ComScore’s annual State of Streaming report shows that the number of CTV hours per household has increased by 21%. Numbers are only expected to go up from here, but what are some trends we will see in 2024 and beyond?

In the upcoming year, the confluence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Free Ad Supported TV (FAST), Shoppable Ads, Measurement technologies, Attention Measurement, and more will be pivotal in reshaping how viewers consume and advertisers spend on CTV.

We chatted with a few CTV experts about what’s ahead for CTV, and their predictions point toward a bright, lucrative future.

What’s Next with AI?

When it comes to brand safety, AI is what’s hot, and blocklists are a thing of the past. It’s time for CTV professionals to rely on AI and video-level data. 

“Going into 2024, the streaming industry should be paying close attention to AI. We have still not realized the full impact of AI on CTV advertising. There are many opportunities to create personalized ad experiences attributable to CTV performance. This rings especially true when it comes to creative versioning and optimization across channels.” –Dina Roman, SVP, global ad sales, Fubo

“No brand wants their ad placed next to inappropriate or unsuitable content, leaving a poor brand association with consumers. However, brands that continue to leverage blocklisting solutions to address brand safety are doing more harm than good. Blocklisting is outdated and causes brands to avoid high-quality, more efficient, and lower-price inventory. Brands have been leveraging genre and channel-level blocklists, thinking they’re leveraging safer inventory, to have their ads run in TVMA comedies and horror movies. Video-level data will be critical for brands transitioning budgets from cable/linear into FAST and streaming. This applies to both targeting and measurement. Breakthroughs in computer vision AI data availability from companies like IAS make it possible to monitor the previously opaque FAST inventory. Leveraging new technologies like the IRIS_ID to access video-level data is now the most reliable, scalable, and cheapest way to address brand safety.” – Field Garthwaite, CEO and Co-Founder of IRIS.TV

FAST is Outgrowing AVOD 

To stand out as a streaming service, embracing sophisticated approaches to measurability will be crucial. 

“FAST channels that want to be taken seriously by advertisers must stand out with measurability. A move toward more advanced measurability will drive standardization within the industry to ensure that metrics are comparable across different platforms and campaigns. Brands and companies will increasingly move beyond simplistic attribution models and adopt multi-touch/cross-platform models to consider the full customer journey and understand how different interactions contribute to conversions and LTV.” – Gijsbert Pols, Ph.D., Director of Connected TV and New Channels at Adjust

“FAST is the preferred TV model and is giving AVOD a run for its money. Many Free Ad Supported TV or “FAST” platforms were originally launched to give viewers more choices amid an increasingly expensive, subscription-driven streaming ecosystem. In 2024, we can see that the choice is a clear preference as legacy subscription players rethink their strategy around premium offerings, consumers are looking to cut costs, and the quality of FAST content is impressive. With every major news network and live sports making their way to FAST, these platforms are now becoming serious contenders for content exclusives and debuts, further challenging AVODs dominance.” – Michael Scott, VP of Sales and Ad Operations at Samsung

Shoppable TV & Retail Media

The fusion of content and commerce will redefine the TV-watching experience. 

“Retail media will become a pivotal part of the future of advertising as consumers can make purchases directly off their TV screens. Perhaps one of the most obvious examples, cooking programs could seamlessly integrate with grocery delivery apps, allowing viewers to purchase ingredients straight off their screen to their doorstep. The fusion of CTV and commerce creates an interactive platform where every click has real-world implications.” – Gijsbert Pols, Ph.D., Director of Connected TV and New Channels at Adjust

“Consumers want an omnichannel experience, and the arrival of Shoppable Ads in streaming environments brings this closer to reality. (From our recent study, we found that Shoppable Ads have great brand recall – more than half of respondents (55%) recall seeing a shoppable ad, and out of them, half (50%) have interacted with such an ad. In 2024, we don’t see this slowing down. When consumers see a product on TV, they want to be able to quickly learn more or purchase that product and increase the ease of access along their path to purchase.” – Michael Scott, VP of Sales and Ad Operations at Samsung 

Will We Get Measurement Right in 2024?

CTV advertising has faced difficulties due to fragmentation from the start. The future of measurement in the CTV sector is about trying new strategies. 

“New and integrated ways of measuring CTV in 2024 will expose who is watching what platform. Spoiler alert: there is not as much overlap as most brands think. This means brands will use new measurement abilities to find the audiences they have been missing through linear and selected CTV buys alone, decreasing fragment buying process and increasing their ease of ads management.” – Cathy Oh, Head of Marketing, Samsung Electronics America

“Viewability is top of mind for us as it is a crucial CTV metric. The IAB’s open measurement for Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Android TV devices is a new technology that took some time for suppliers and app publishers to adjust. We predict that early adopters will begin supporting open measurement in 2024. Open measurement unlocks full cross-screen viewability measurement using the same underlying expectations and specifications across CTV, mobile, and desktop devices. It also discloses exactly how many ads serve partially off-screen or to the TVs that are turned off, Audio and AVOC measurement, the ability to transact on viewable impressions in CTV, and measurement and reporting based on customized viewability standards.” – Dan Slivjanovski, CMO of media measurement and ad performance at DoubleVerify

Attention is the New Currency 

Tapping into attention measurement is key to unlocking new revenue streams. 

 “Ad outcomes and differentiating audiences will remain a key topic in streaming, with certain metrics becoming increasingly significant. For instance, analyzing ad attention and audience engagement across channels to quantify the outcomes of CTV campaigns will be an area of focus. These metrics are critical to helping the TV industry better understand the value of various CTV experiences and services for advertisers.” – Dina Roman, SVP, global ad sales, Fubo

“Right Mindset + Right Creative = Better Campaign Performance. Video-level data enables brands to better identify consumers, ensure they’re reaching the right audiences, and better place ads within the context of the content they’re engaging with. Research shows that consumers pay 4X more attention to ads relevant to the content they are watching. AI and machine learning offer promising avenues for ad creative development and targeted messaging. However, the challenge lies in ensuring ads align with audience mindsets. As the advertising landscape evolves, reaching consumers in the right mindset becomes as critical as crafting quality creative. Misalignments can result in negative brand perceptions, impacting political campaigns as well. In fact, according to the AVCA, more than half of consumers were less interested in the brand and products found in contextually misaligned ads. For brands that are looking to better increase campaign performance in 2024, it’s crucial to not only leverage video-level data but emotional and AI-driven data to deliver the right ad, in the right context and right mindset of the consumer.” – Field Garthwaite, CEO and Co-Founder of IRIS.TV

Content Bundling

Will 2024 be the year of the bundle?

“The streaming landscape, especially sports content, is more fragmented than ever. Consumer frustration and advertisers’ challenges to reach target audiences mean the industry is approaching a tipping point. As a result, we’re starting to see a return to content bundling. Fubo has long said there is power and value in content aggregation — the very heart of our business model. Super aggregation will benefit audiences and, in turn, advertisers.” – Dina Roman, SVP, global ad sales, Fubo

“2024 will see the rise of streaming services joining the legacy bundle, as evidenced by the recent Charter Disney deal. I predict we’ll see more SVODs partner with MVPDs to bundle offerings. While this represents a retreat to the wholesale model, it will likely add some stability to subscriber counts. Bundles work, and consumers are less likely to drop any particular service when it’s part of a broader package that includes broadband, cable, or satellite and phone. I don’t know that it will slow the rate of cord cutting, but there does still appear to be tens of millions of households where this model could work and help both parties.” – Dave Bernath, Vice President Sales & Partnerships, Americas at Wurl

Social Media Is Challenging Streamers

Let’s keep it real: these days, many of us are busy going down the rabbit hole on TikTok as opposed to sitting through a show on Firestick.

“The rise of short-form video platforms, such as TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook Reels, poses a significant challenge to all CTV platforms. Short-form players draw a significant portion of ad spend primarily because they align with consumer preferences and offer advanced personalization and measurement features. This shift can redirect ad dollars away from long-form video, including traditional TV and CTV/OTT. Additionally, social media is becoming more appealing to brands with its premium content deals and tools for creators and influencers. UGC has grown up, essentially. This trend is expected to continue, putting pressure on streaming services even as they see unprecedented growth.” – Dan Slivjanovski, CMO of media measurement and ad performance at DoubleVerify

Miscellaneous Predictions

CTV will become the household’s central digital hub, a true performance channel, and a place to target multi-screen experiences.  

“In 2024, we’ll see CTV offering a transformative user experience transcending traditional boundaries. Just as the smartphone revolutionized what can be done using a phone, the digitization of TV will do the same for television. CTV can transform the TV from a device for watching content to the central digital hub in every household. The convergence of stationary and social will not only elevate user engagement but also create more robust opportunities for advertisers to connect to consumers with many different interests.” – Gijsbert Pols, Ph.D., Director of Connected TV and New Channels at Adjust

“Advertisers will finally leverage Connected TV as a true performance channel. Advancements in AI-driven technologies and performance marketing solutions will give rise to more targeted and personalized CTV experiences. This, in turn, will give streamers and publishers the ability to accurately measure and attribute a viewer’s actions to a specific campaign, enabling advertisers to turn marketing efforts from a cost center to a revenue driver.” – Ron Gutman, CEO at Wurl

“As CTV ad capabilities continue to improve and evolve, digital screens get more dynamic, and retail media ecosystems explode, it will be critical for advertisers to shift their ad campaigns beyond the living room. Targeted multi-screen experiences will be key in 2024 to reaching consumers with messages that move with the medium. Expect retailers to get smarter with their in-store screens, and expect brands to start to bring their CTV campaigns out of the home, onto mobile and into retail and other out-of-home locations in 2024.” – Cathy Oh, Head of Marketing, Samsung Electronics America

The post Streaming Into the Future: CTV Predictions of 2024 appeared first on AdMonsters.

Today there are over 11,000 TV production businesses in the US (nearly 5% more than in 2022), and TV production is growing nearly 4% each year. On top of that, it’s never been easier for a content creator to spin up a FAST channel.

But building an audience? That’s a whole other matter. One of the biggest challenges facing content producers is making audiences aware of just how much content is available to them for free and from their existing smart TV. 

To learn more about FAST and where it fits into the TV landscape, we talked with Ron Gutman, CEO of Wurl, a 25-year veteran of the TV industry. Wurl and Samsung launched the world’s first native FAST channel in 2018, and today Gutman is hoping that over the next five years, cable, satellite, and broadcast providers will have completed their migrations to FAST.

AdMonsters: What made you decide to launch a new market — FAST?

Ron Gutman: We saw that other major streaming industry players were succeeding with the AVOD/SVOD model, and we realized that the next logical step would be the transition from linear television to streaming. 

Technology is often the catalyst for shifts in entertainment consumption, and the consumer clearly wants to consume TV digitally. That meant coming up with technology that allows linear TV providers to launch FAST channels very easily.

In the beginning, there was no monetization, so we needed to reduce the cost of launching television channels on streaming, which was one of our first goals.

AdMonsters: FAST is now five years old … would you call it a mature market now? 

RG: Not quite, but we’re getting there. There are three distinct stages to FAST’s growth. The first is moving content to digital so it can be watched on a variety of devices. That stage is complete. 

The second stage is monetization so content creators can profit from their content. The digital ad tech sector was able to monetize a lot of the streaming content, which was a big motivation for publishers to migrate. Without advertising to compensate for the reduction in cable viewership, there wouldn’t be a digital option for this content.

The third stage is viewership, and even though more than half of American TV viewers watch FAST today, this stage isn’t complete yet. If we want FAST to become more like cable, we need to increase viewership substantially.

AdMonsters: More than half of TV viewers consume content on FAST platforms today.  That sounds like viewership has arrived.

RG: It is a lot, but these households aren’t really availing themselves of what’s available. According to our own insights, most households watch just one or two FAST channels each month, when there are literally thousands available. The variety is unprecedented, but the public isn’t fully aware of what’s available to them for free.

Compare that to the heyday of cable, when people spent a hundred hours or more each month consuming content across 17 channels on average. That’s a huge difference, which is why I think it will be a few more years before that third stage is complete.

AdMonsters: When do you think the public will realize the breadth of content that’s available to them?

RG: I think that within five years viewers will migrate and the transition to FAST will be nearly, if not 100%, complete. The first five years of migration were about recreating the cable experience in the digital world. Over the next five years, we’ll see more digital technologies entering the CTV space and the full migration of viewership will be completed.

AdMonsters: Why should advertisers add FAST to their mix?

RG: Because it’s digital, and that means marketers can run true performance campaigns. They can measure how much they spent on advertising, who was reached, and how many of those viewers visited their website, or made it purchase. When consumers show intent, we can retarget them to drive better results. We never had that capability with traditional TV.

AdMonsters: Can you give me a precise example of a performance campaign that’s run on FAST?

RG: We said earlier that there are thousands upon thousands of FAST channels. If you own one of those channels, a key goal is to get more consumers to discover and view your content. There are millions of households watching FAST content, how do you find which will watch your channel?

This is actually a problem that’s well suited for machine learning. Because we have insights into viewing habits, we can predict what someone is likely to watch even before they realize they want to watch it. These predictions allow us to make really smart recommendations to the right viewer for tune-in campaigns. And we can quantify the payoff: your ad was seen by X number of viewers who then consumed your content either via a CTV app or via a FAST channel.

We can also retarget consumers on a mobile phone while they’re watching TV. Let’s say a consumer watches a lot of sports, but hasn’t tuned into the NFL FAST channel, perhaps because he didn’t realize such a channel exists and that he has access to it. We can retarget that user with an ad, and if he responds, the chances are he will check out the NFL channel. Our insights show that retargeting in the mobile channel while consumers are watching TV most often delivers the strongest conversion rate.

AdMonsters: Isn’t automated content recognition or ACR data supposed to help users discover content that they may like?

RG: Yes, and it does a good job of it. The problem is that it’s platform-specific, and it doesn’t cover all of the streaming apps. If you have a channel, you can’t really tie your content discovery campaign to actual conversions if the viewer watches your content in an app that doesn’t support ACR data. 

AdMonsters: You mentioned that machine learning can predict what a viewer wants to watch before he or she even knows it. Have you discovered anything surprising in that data?

RG: Yes, I assumed that affinity drives people’s viewing behavior. If viewers watch many nature shows, I assumed that recommendations for similar or adjacent content would lead to conversions. But, the data show that affinity isn’t as correlated to conversion as assumed. A person’s mood is an important driver. And that leads to an interesting question: how do we measure a viewer’s mood so that we can recommend content they’re likely to watch?

It turns out that real-time viewing behavior can be a window into a viewer’s mood. If they’re switching channels, it’s clear they’re just browsing and a recommendation may lead to a conversion. If they’re watching content that has an uplifting message, they’ll probably watch other content that is also uplifting.

Recency also has a big impact on conversion. If someone just finished watching the news, they’re not likely to want to continue watching the news. People tend to consume content in sequences and patterns. Machine learning is able to identify those patterns and serve up relevant content at scale.

AdMonsters: So M-L will play a key role in completing the viewership stage?

RG. Absolutely. ML-based recommendations will teach viewers that there’s a world of content at their fingertips. They just need to tune in.

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Ron Gutman is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Wurl – the leader in data-driven solutions for Connected TV (CTV). Ron has played an instrumental role in Wurl’s growth, helping navigate the company through streaming’s evolution to usher in the next era of TV. Ron joined Wurl nearly six years ago as Vice President, Broadcast Engineering and was appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in 2018. Before joining Wurl, he was the founder and CTO of Imagine Communications and, prior to that, the Director of Customer Solutions for BigBand Networks.

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CTV is coming to the forefront as a performance channel, and marketers should seize this tremendous opportunity. Here’s why:

CTV Strategies Will Be Used to Target Niche Audiences

White-label streaming technology, provided by companies such as Wurl, is getting more and more available and easier to use. Together with the increasing popularity of AVOD and FAST, this will trigger a boom in niche streaming services with very specific audiences, allowing marketers to run extremely precise ads with tailored campaigns that will lead to great ROI through conversion.

Think: A streaming service for U.S. sitcoms from the 1970s targeting your grandma. 

While these niche streaming services do not have the reach of linear TV and mainstream SVOD (Again, you won’t stream ‘70s sitcoms, but your grandma might), they offer highly nuanced targeting options based on demographics and behavioral patterns, enabling advertisers to develop tailored campaigns that capture consumers’ attention across the entire funnel and even drive them to conversion. 

With measurability across the board, marketers are in a better position than ever to leverage the power of CTV and witness improved performance and effective advertising in this space.

CTV Advertising Is a Fully Measurable Channel

CTV has evolved into a measurable, accountable performance marketing channel — allowing for more precise targeting, and, as a result, higher ROI. We’ve reached the point where the entire user’s journey is measurable, and using upper-funnel data, marketers can see exactly how TV ads tie into the wider marketing goals. Within the right parameters, even the impact of CTV advertising on mobile and desktop purchases has become measurable.

With the ability to pursue incredibly segmented audiences and fully measure the ROI on CTV campaigns, marketers will have more control than ever before over their CTV ads —  if they lay the proper groundwork, that is. 

How Marketers Can Engage the Right Audiences on CTV

Select CTV Inventory Vendors With Care

I’ve two recommendations for marketers looking for a winning CTV vendor such as Vibe, The Trade Desk, and tvScientific. First, make sure the vendor has experience in the CTV space, as partnering with a new vendor may lead to a lack of sophistication in measurement and targeting available. Second, ensure the vendor lets you determine the context in which your ads are displayed. For this, a vendor should be able to provide the data needed to monitor if ads are served properly.

Determine Your Targeting Strategy

As mentioned, as consumers look to tighten their belts, they will turn to AVOD and FAST channels, opening myriad targeting options for advertisers. Marketers can use the following targeting strategies to identify and pursue the right audience for their brand:

• Contextual targeting:  Relevant ads are shown to viewers on the basis of what they most often stream.
• Demographics:  Ads based on age, genre, or the user’s preferred media genre.
• Geolocation: Ads shown to users in specific regions.
• First-party data: Ads based on user-specific data (that can be accessed via a CTV platform). Advertisers can not only leverage first-party data from the CTV platforms and streaming services. Many vendors enable clients to bring in their own first-party data to optimize targeting.
• Second-party data: Ads given to users due to data from databases linked to CTV platforms.
• Channel targeting: Ads based on the app or streaming service a viewer uses.

With a tactical combination of the above targeting methods, advertisers can reach fragmented audiences across different OTT (Over-the-Top) services like Netflix and Hulu to capture specific high-value users for their brand.

Ensure Accurate Measurement and Optimize 

Once you’ve selected your CTV partners and targeting strategy, it’s time to measure. By using a comprehensive CTV measurement solution (like Adjust’s CTV Advision) you can immediately spot how CTV drives direct performance and, even more importantly, manages to drive potential users to down-funnel channels such as Google Ads and Apple Search Ads. These insights are especially valuable for optimizing costs in difficult economic times.

With accurate measurement results in hand, marketers in 2023 will be able to test and perfect their campaigns for optimal reach. Therefore, the time to pursue highly segmented audiences via CTV is now.

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