Expanding Beyond A State Of Semi-Convergence

Industry observers have longpredicted the day television would eventually look more like digital The growth in consumer access to premium content options devices and countless streaming video services has only increased the need for a holistic understanding of audiences across screensAnd in order to truly converge the premium nature of TV with the precision and performance of digital we need to move toward a model that unifies and automates planning activation measurement and attributionSo in collaboration with Advertiser Perceptions we set out to uncover the nuances of converged planning and buying through a series of research studies surveying TV and digital video buyersIt39s About Culture Not Just TechnologyLet39s begin with quothowquot they39re buying digital video and TV In our research process we found most organizational structures currently support true convergence at the planning phaseFifty eight percent of digital video buyers surveyed said that campaign planning is conducted by a single team responsible for both television and digital video As we move across phases from negotiating the buy to optimizing the campaign and then ultimately reporting the results we see a near evensplit between combined television and digital video teams and groups that operate separately but collaborativelyThis state of quotsemiconvergencequot speaks to both the opportunities and challenges of implementing a platformagnostic approach across the campaign lifecycle The identical organizational structures at the buying and campaign reporting phases indicates the need for a datadriven solution one which can better support audiencebased buying and ROI qualificationFifty six percent of agency respondents1 say the buying phase would benefit the most from true television and digital convergence while 53 percent of marketers say campaign reporting would benefit the most This finding makes sense intuitively since we know agencies are often a critical component of their marketer clients39 activation strategy and marketers need to prove performance and ROI to continue to drive investmentWe also conducted indepth interviews with 10 senior agency and client leaders and discovered there was a perception that in order to operate seamlessly across digital and TV media buyers need to learn new skills and quotdo double the workquot Interviewees also shared that the move toward a more converged organizational structure is further complicated by a lack of standard measurement currenciesAs a result advertisers are turning to audiencebased solutions inclusive of privacysafe identity capabilities to achieve scale while also managing reach frequency and exposure and ultimately driving campaign effectivenessThe CTV Ecosystem Represents Opportunity And ChallengesAdvertisers are also taking advantage of the growing CTV opportunity since CTV straddles the lines between both TV and digital media plans Eighty two percent of video buyers we surveyed say they plan to use CTV in their campaign plans in the next year More than half also intend to increase their spend in the channelWhile nearly 9 in 10 marketers report they39ll leverage CTV in the next year fortyfive percent of marketers say they clearly understand how CTV can enable them to achieve their company39s goals compared to 50 of agency buyers indicating there is slightly less confidence at the marketer level regarding knowledge around CTV versus at the agency level Another key insight emerged Despite so much optimism for future investment at the buyer level just over a third of those surveyed consider CTV to be a mustbuy and necessary to include on their media planThese results are partly reflective of the rapid rate of adoption of CTV by consumers according to our April survey of 500 consumers nearly half report watching TV programming andor movies delivered via an Internet connection at least daily and the advertising industry39s progress to realize its valueWith no single universal identifier and growing device proliferation the fragmentation around CTV identity does not make for seamless inflight or postcampaign measurement at present There is also the question of whether CTV is a TV or digital buyer39s purview or bothThe big takeaway from our research is that while convergence is happening at every stage of the advertising journey TV and digital teams and technology need to be in alignment to fully realize the benefits of a unified digital and TV strategyA focus on audience and identity will help to enable buyers to reach audiences in the right place at the right moment And investments in convergent channels like CTV will continue to drive demand for better measurement and reporting across all formats1 US Marketplace Survey of 200 Digital Video buyers with fieldwork conducted from March 24 through May 4 2020Click 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 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Expanding Beyond A State Of Semi-Convergence

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Charlotte Lipman

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