Digital TV & Connected TV
What are digital tv advertising and connected tv ads (video-on-demand)?
With the popularity of video streaming services, better mobile devices and easier access to content across those devices, the vast majority of consumers today prefer to watch their content of choice on-demand (VOD, Video-On-Demand Advertising). So it is no surprise that the big screen at home shouldn’t be called television anymore but instead, simply screen since people use it to view content coming from different services and devices, and not just broadcast tv where the name originated from. Today your living room screen is also smart (smart-tv) thus connected to the internet giving the consumer many choices to access content through, for example, apps (applications) such as YouTube, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and more. Besides tv apps, consumers also use this big screen to project content from their favourite mobile devices (phone, tablet) or to connect digital & streaming boxes such as Google’s Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku, Sky Q and more.
This entire universe of different content providers and the many different ways of viewing content on a single big screen is, of course, great space and opportunity for advertising thus called digital tv or connected tv advertising because it is excluding broadcast tv. Below are some of the advertising platforms used to target consumers in their living rooms.
YouTube (Google Ads, PPC)
YouTube, part of the Google Ads family, is the largest video platform by far with an audience and views far greater than, for example, BBC, ITV and Channel4 combined. Most importantly, YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google Search which means that consumers use this video platform to actively search for content they are interested in. This behaviour is really beneficial from an advertising perspective because brands can better target viewers with a good degree of accuracy and less wastage. Besides keyword targeting, you can target viewers with topics, interests, affinity to crossover products, specific channels and even specific videos. Some of the common formats are Skippable Videos after 5 seconds, Non-Skippable Video up to 30 seconds and it works in a CPV (cost per view) model instead of CPC (cost per click). Finally, brands can opt to target tv specifically instead of all YouTube’s apps or website.
YouTube Outreach
YouTube Advertising is also available to website visitors outside YouTube itself. Meaning, YouTube Ads can now be served and placed in websites within Google’s Display Network. This is a great and cost-effective way to advertise with an engaging format (video) across the web without resourcing to Programmatic Ads and Ad Exchanges for Pre-Roll video and still having all the benefits of YouTube’s targeting.
AdSmart from Sky (Sky AdSmart Advertising, Sky Q Advertising)
Households that subscribe to Sky have a device connected to their tv commonly called a set-top box or in this particular case Sky Q. This digital tv box is no different from your mobile device. It tracks what content you watch and contains all the household information such as postal code, its composition and who’s the subscriber (profile data). This enables brands to advertise on both broadcast tv channels and video-on-demand (VOD) services in a very targeted way (without wastage) and at low as 4-digit prices. Since these set-top boxes are connected to Sky and the internet, like a mobile device is, advertisers can target small areas or even just a postcode area if they wish in contrast to broadcast tv which is un-targeted, wasteful and broad. In addition to localised targeting, advertisers can use other audience segments only available digitally such as credit card data, niche segments like pet owners or affluent population, and many other granular targetings like you have to say in Facebook Ads including custom audiences. Finally, with the benefit of a connected tv, AdSmart also offers accurately profiled audiences and detailed campaign reporting.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon does not work with Ad Exchanges so all media buying needs to be through an Agency Partner or Amazon directly. Like YouTube or AdSmart from Sky, Amazon Prime Video can display video ads across certain types of content (film, tv shows) and subscriptions (paid, prime).