a4 Insights: The Playing Field for Midterm Election Ad Spending has Shifted

With the pandemic and the 2020 election consumer media usage has evolved making it easier for advertisers to leverage connected TV CTV and over the top OTT with linear quotCTV and OTT are not new to the midterms or even the 2016 presidential electionquot McGuire explained quotHowever the pandemic has established CTV and OTT as a musthave component in any media campaign alongside linearquotInitially in the 2018 midterms he noted OTT and CTV were looked at as a tactic to establish crossplatform frequency and reach extension Then during the pandemic there was a massive shift in viewer engagement on these platforms as people were home more quotThis binge behavior is where OTT thrivesquot he saidThe primary benefit for political advertisers is twofold First it provides additional inventory to serve impressions in a linearlike environment as cable and broadcast become tight quotwhich is why a439s exclusive partnership with LG Ads is so important providing more opportunities to efficiently reach voters in a fragmented viewing environmentquot McGuire noted What39s more quotit allows campaigns to reach them outside of their respective cable news or local news echo chambersquotWhile the pandemic accelerated streaming viewership and engagement the tide had started to rise before that time So it can39t be considered quota flukequot he said quotThis bodes well for political advertisers who need to reach specific voters within a zip code while watching content in their living rooms where they are more open to messagingquotThere are certain challenges related to whether CTV and OTT are considered linear or digital quotIf spots are delivered dynamically through an ad server all signs point to digital rightquot McGuire posited quotBut the reality is that more than 70 of OTTCTV impressions are landing on televisions in the home just like linearquotData usage is another challenge quotSometimes I think data can be too granular in the way it39s employedquot he said quotThere is the risk of serving too many impressions to the same people with OTT and CTV We need to start scaling and using actionable insights to inform our tacticsquotSolutions for advertisers require good thirdparty verification providers and the strategic use of firstparty data quotI think that39s going to become very important as we move towards a thirdparty cookieless worldquot McGuire noted quota4 can leverage authenticated IP addresses which helps with fraud issues and ensures that the advertiser is reaching an actual home and not a bot or other nonhuman trafficquotWe have a proprietary data onboarding process that washes PII personally identifiable information data across several Internet Service Providers ISPs and identity partners nationallyquot he continued quotWe have access to over 90 million IP addresses refreshed weekly so you know you39re reaching actual households within your desired audiencequotAll of this makes it easier to craft and customize audience segments quotWe partner with dozens of thirdparty data vendorsquot McGuire explained quotFrom a political and public affairs standpoint we can create any custom segment whether directly from CRM customer relationship management lists voter files or other unique datasets with some of the highest match rates in the industryquota4 is also beta testing a way to ascertain the effectiveness of interactive messages which will help advertisers tweak their commercials within a flight quotActionable insights that we glean from real people and sequential messaging will be essential to drive more meaningful conversations directly with voters throughout the cyclequot he asserted quotThis is something that39s not heavily utilized right nowquotFor McGuire the future looks bright but complex quotIt39s no surprise that our marketplace is becoming more competitivequot he noted quotIf you39re only tracking impressions or completions you39re missing out on some valuable insights Having expert boots on the ground to manage campaigns and track KPIs key performance indicators is very importantquotReporting that provides value through actionable insights instead of solely measuring campaign performance through reach and frequency will be a big differentiator moving forward as will the growth and development of ACR automatic content recognitionquot he concludedClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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a4 Insights: The Playing Field for Midterm Election Ad Spending has Shifted

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Charlene Weisler

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a4 Insights: The Playing Field for Midterm Election Ad Spending has Shifted

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