Why Linear TV Buyers Need CTV to Deliver a Powerful, Complete TV Strategy

Author: John Vilade, Head of Sales, Premion.

TV is TV, no matter how you watch, and it’s still the dominant platform for adults when spending time consuming media each day. In fact, this year, US adults are projected to spend 4 hours and 49 minutes per day watching TV — and nearly 40% of that daily TV time will be spent streaming, according to eMarketer*. Thus, Connected TV (CTV) is an essential buy for linear TV buyers looking to build a complete TV strategy in 2023.

Many traditional TV advertisers are already embracing CTV to extend their reach to capture audiences that cannot be reached through linear alone. Without CTV in the mix, advertisers are potentially missing out on a huge audience segment, as almost half (46%) of US households are only reachable on streaming TV, according to an MRI Simmons 2022 November Cord Evolution study.

With CTV, traditional advertisers can tap into advanced digital-like targeting to reach precise audiences based on location, interests, behaviors and sophisticated audience-first personas. Additionally, advertisers can deliver personalized ads with localized and interactive dynamic creative.

With enhanced measurement capabilities, advertisers can measure the effectiveness of both CTV and linear ad campaigns to allow for better planning of media spend by gaining insights on incremental reach and frequency across their campaigns. Additionally, with unduplicated reach metrics, advertisers can quantify the reach of households that did not see their ad campaign on linear TV. For example, in a recent reach extension analysis of more than 300 Premion campaigns across multiple industries, our results show on average that 85% of households reached by Premion were not reached by any linear TV campaign.

Consumers are in control and are watching more TV in more ways and on more platforms —and advertisers should consider the following when building a complete TV plan for an effective media strategy.

• Combine CTV and linear TV to reach viewers no matter how they’re watching TV — as this broader approach enables advertisers to reach a large potential buying audience at scale.
• CTV not only delivers a true TV experience, but also offers advertisers the ability to tap into powerful data-rich targeting and outcomes-based measurement to drive ROI and proof-of-performance.
• Work with CTV partners that are focused on reputable publishers and branded networks that align with the quality of programming that they purchase on TV.
• Above all, advertisers should choose partners that have proven capabilities to measure reach across linear and CTV/OTT channels to ensure that their campaigns reach a new, largely unduplicated audience.

To achieve simplicity and scale in planning, buying, and measurement, partnering with a trusted provider that has the expertise and in delivering effective media buying solutions across CTV and linear TV is a powerful and invaluable proposition for advertisers.

*eMarketer; Average Time Spent per Day with TV, US, 2020-2024, April 2022; eMarketer; eMarketer, Average Time Spent per Day with Other Connected Devices, April 2022. Copyright © 2022 Insider Intelligence Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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