“On TV and videoA column that explores opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video.
Today’s column is by Matt Krepsick, Chief Technology Officer Quotient.
Proponents of addressable TV call it the future of advertising – a world where marketers can better target their viewers and rely on rigorous data to communicate their marketing plans. This is a wonderful theory, but the reality is a little less pink.
Despite the great promise, addressable TV is still a product that has been around since childhood. And there is still a long, long way to go to rely on advertising addressable TVs as a brand-building asset to sell products.
This evolution not only requires a deeper, more subtle understanding of how addressable real works, but it also calls for more smart data.
Understanding OTT opportunities in addressable TV
Work on the address TV has been going on for a long time. The model of the classic linear TV spray-and-prep ad showed its age as the Internet matured. Case in point: You can guess who is watching by looking at age and gender, but you never know for sure.
The evolution of the data-driven addressable linear seeks to build on this legacy of age and gender by overlaying visitor-based features from the digital ecosystem. However, the irony of this approach is that it does not allow brands to reach their customers uniquely. It simply highlights the size of the total viewing population, which may not fit perfectly into their audience definition and gives the illusion of addressability.
Also, there is no way to tell if the person watching the TV ad was actively engaged, the consumer you want, their spouse or children – or, if the TV was playing in an empty room, they probably had dogs or house plants.
The real promise in addressable TV is in the over-the-top (OTT) space. Because the service is connected to the Internet, OTT ads can be stored in the cloud or on a server, providing an unlimited number. However, as OTT ads become more targeted, content providers do not always have the best idea of pacing. As a result, consumers may see the same TV ad multiple times in a row, resulting in excessive saturation and wasted marketing budgets. Worse, since all of these services are privatized, there is no centralized exchange to reduce frequency.
Data is not enough; It has to be smart
What does it take to reach the full potential of addressable TV? For now, advocates of addressable TV maintain their recommendations based on big data taken from viewers’ personal activities. What they won’t tell you is that the TV viewership data they are studying is unlikely Smart Missing pieces of information and that.
With addressable TV, there’s no way to know who’s watching the screen – even by setting up different profiles on the services. During the epidemic, co-philosophy rose 40%. It does increase audience size, but it also raises questions about who is watching and who the brands are trying to reach.
The hype surrounding this relatively new form of marketing is not entirely wrong. Audience targeting in the TV space has certainly improved in recent years, but it is important not to confuse vision with reality. The TV still has a long way to go before it can be fully – even actively – addressable And some brand categories are more suitable for addressable advertising than others (especially those that have a crystal-clear definition to the consumer audience).
The path to addressability has been paved with smart data
There’s only one tool in the television toolbox, and it’s a pretty blunt instrument. To persuade a consumer to take action, you need to give them additional follow-up action. Whether it’s getting their phone out, looking for a website, or going to a store, it needs a level of context that is not currently available or properly tracked in today’s TV landscape. At the moment, even about its most functional, addressable TV brand building.
So, the big question is: can addressable TV surpass TV and motivate consumers in real-world action? The answer remains to be seen.
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