Stream of Consciousness
What Brands Need to Remember When Creating Connected TV
Least surprising thing ever: the pandemic accelerating the boom in Connected TV (CTV) and Over-the-Top (OTT) viewing. According to Nielsen, the time users spent on CTV devices increased by 81% year-over-year from 2019 — or about 4 billion hours per week.
And it’s not just millennials watching ad-free Netflix, either:
- Streamers are extremely diverse, drawn by the viewing variety and flexibility that CTV and OTT offer. In fact, Nielsen reports that older viewers are the fastest-growing segment.
- A SpotX/Mintel study found that 80% of CTV viewers watch ad-supported content.
How to get the most from your ad dollars.
Using CTV/OTT is a great way to target specific audiences who are more likely to engage with your brand — delivering a full-screen experience, free from distractions and skip options.
Because many viewers multitask with devices already in hand or nearby, consider adding device matching capabilities so you can serve display ads on other household devices once they’ve seen your ad on TV. Plus, it’s common for CTV viewers to go looking for brands after their show, so make sure you have a strong search campaign in place to support your campaign.
What does it mean for creative?
It’s critical to have solid data up front to nail down precise target audiences and KPIs, thorough planning so that you capture everything in the production stage you need to target those audiences, and testing to determine what’s resonating so that you can shift on the fly when necessary.
Plan it right, and you only need one shot to get it right.
By using multiple talent, writing script versions highlighting different messages, and shooting in different formats, you can cost-effectively create a series of ad iterations that target a range of audiences or enable testing — all with just one video shoot or VO session.
This approach lets you tell your complete brand story in a memorable way, rather than trying to cram all of your value props into one ad where none break through. Plus, by combining multiple ads with frequency capping, you can avoid over-serving the same viewer. There’s nothing worse than viewer fatigue caused by seeing the same ad over and over again.
Can’t shoot? Get creative.
There are cost-effective ways to make existing assets fit your new campaign. You can supplement existing footage or stills with motion graphics or animation. Or you can record new VO and add new music to freshen or retarget an existing spot.
Get users engaged.
Besides traditional video, streaming ads let you take advantage of interactive and data-driven options to increase engagement. An Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) report found that interactive video generated a 591% lift in total user activity over standard pre-roll campaigns — and that CTV had the highest completion rates compared to mobile and desktop.
Some of these interactive features include:
- Extended-length video content
- Gated content
- TV-to-mobile (for example, users enter their phone number to get an offer texted to them)
- Dynamic mapping (“Find a location near you”)
Plus, data points such as time of day, type of device, and even current weather can help marketers personalize content to make it more relevant and push prospective customers to take action — with product-info feeds, dynamic mapping, and real-time offers.
How to jump-start your CTV and OTT campaigns.
Your campaign will only be as good as the numbers behind it. If you don’t have the capabilities in house, it helps to find a partner with the necessary data mining and analyzing chops to generate insights that provide the creative fuel for targeted, engaging, action-inspiring creative.
