Advertisers look to connected TVs to develop new campaigns

There has been lots of talk about the connected television and how the advertising world can take advantage of the possibilities presented to them. Advertising revenue has been on a downward spiral and there is a feeling that the current method of advertising on the box isn’t cutting the mustard anymore.

Media buyers are probably most aware of this and are keen to promote new technologies to help stabilise this trend. Carat recently held an event which brought together key figures from the advertising world to look at what technology can do to help advertisers to think of new ways of getting their content to the consumer.

With connected TVs, advertisers are only just beginning to get to grips with what they can do in terms of interactivity and weaving in new functions, offers, or promotions into the standard advertising campaigns that we are all familiar with.

In some quarters, the convergence of the two is being seen as The Holy Grail for advertisers. Not only does it provide them with the ability to interact with the viewer, but it can also push them towards further information and even the opportunity to buy the product directly.
Of course for this to be fully realised, the technology needs to be in place to allow for the industry to use its well-known creativity and ingenuity to the fullest. This is where the hardware and supporting software is going to be so important, and already we are seeing companies experimenting with what they can offer the market.

The TV App Agency recently launched its TV App Agency engine which allows brands to deploy multiple platform-ready apps from a single source code. This is allowing advertisers to deploy a range of creative executions that will help to draw in the consumer and utilise a multi-screen platform.

We’ve got some way to go before connected TV features are fully utilised by the mainstream, however it’s interesting to see new campaigns trialled leveraging these new technologies.

Connected TV goes global with new industry body

This week saw the launch of the Connected TV Marketing Association (CTVMA), a new marketing body for the worldwide connected TV industry. The CTVMA is an international body, which will bring together the equipment manufacturers, operators, advertisers and broadcasters working to develop connected TV content and services.

It’s a welcome move in the promotion of internet ready TV sets and STBs, and hopefully a significant step towards helping the connected TV market reach its full potential.

With a fifth of TV sets to be connected in five years and the digital switchover upon us, as an industry we need to embark on a programme of significant consumer education in order to boost market performance. Consumers need to have the most up to date technology and be made aware of the innovative services that are actually available to them.

We’ve already seen that marketers are missing a trick by leaving IPTV devices out of their marketing campaigns. It’s a catch 22. As marketers wait for consumers to demonstrate interaction with brands on TV sets, without providing the content, consumers have nothing to interact with. As the CTVMA gets to work, we look forward to seeing the next generation of broadcast content and marketing campaigns across all devices in the connected home.

IAB identifies missed opportunity as marketers find themselves in chicken and egg situation with IPTV

Research from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has found that a massive 88% of marketers don’t have an IPTV strategy. And, a third of those surveyed, felt that only a budget of £50,000 should be allocated to IPTV campaigns. But with global sales of IPTV devices set to reach 100 million by 2014, this is an opportunity marketers can’t afford to miss.

Connected TV and marketing campaigns is a chicken and egg situation. Marketers are waiting for consumers to demonstrate interaction with brands on TV sets, but without the content, consumers have nothing to interact with. However, consumers are slowly interacting. Take popular TV shows like X-Factor where viewers can vote from their sofas via the red button, interacting with content on the TV like never before.

Marketers have an opportunity to capitalise on this new medium as an innovative way to connect with their audiences. It’s all about social interaction now and as the home becomes more connected, consumers are looking for a complete multiscreen viewing experience. Marketer’s can’t afford to miss a device out of the loop.

The intelligence behind the ‘pane of glass’ that is a TV set, is phenomenal. The next generation of STBs are able to deliver interactive, personalised services enabling brands to interact with consumers whilst they watch their favourite TV shows. Marketers have an opportunity to work with STB device manufacturers to develop killer TV apps as well as mobile and tablet apps to deliver a complete marketing strategy.

Connected TVs set to disrupt ad market

In the discussion about the future of connected TVs it’s the revenue opportunity that most broadcasters and CE device vendors have in their sights. But to date it has been too early to take bets on the size of the market opportunity.

Until last week that is when GigaOm published an upbeat article about the future of the TV ad market. It claimed that connected TVs are set to disrupt the $160 million global TV advertising market, by combining the reach of TV with web-style engagement and analytics.

According to GigaOm advertising for video content on mobile devices is going to grow significantly in the coming year but will be dwarfed by the opportunity that emerges as the connected TV market takes off.

Ad networks have the opportunity in their sights.

Twitter and TV

Twitter’s chief executive has spoken recently about its value for live TV shows, hinting that this may result in a tie-up with some TV advertisers. The theory is that tools such as Twitter enhance the experience of watching certain kinds of TV shows live, particularly sports events, by enabling people to communicate with their friends while they’re watching the show. While this may be the case, is it enough to make any tie-up with TV advertisers worthwhile?

Like many other people I’m often tinkering with my laptop while I’m watching TV – but I’m probably doing that during ad breaks when I’m less interested in what’s on the screen. I expect many other people do the same. People may interact with their friends using Twitter, Facebook, or instant messaging during TV shows, but the reality is that while they’re doing this, they’ve taken their eyes off the TV screen and are busy using another device. From the point of view of the advertisers, is this really very different from people watching the ads on fast-forward? If nothing else, they’re still looking at the TV when they’re fast-forwarding through the ads and may actually be paying more attention than otherwise.

The social aspects of watching TV shouldn’t be underestimated – just look at the number of people who watch sports events on TV at bars and pubs – but there’s no guarantee that a social media service can tap into this in a way that helps the advertisers.

How will product placement impact traditional TV advertising?

This Morning became the first UK TV show to feature product placement, when Nescafe’s Dolce Gusto coffee machine was featured in This Morning’s kitchen set this week.

This follows OFCOMS recent unveiling of its new warning symbol for programmes containing product placement Commercial broadcasters and the advertising industry will obviously welcome this move, given the challenges facing the more traditional forms of advertising in the UK. What may not be so clear is how this could affect the revenue flow between broadcasters, advertisers, and production companies. Where advertisers were traditionally working with broadcasters, will product placement lead to production companies such as Endemol getting a bigger share of the advertising pie?

The restrictions on where it can be used, and the logo for shows that feature it, seem to be a reasonable compromise between slowing the decline in advertising revenue and maintaining the public’s trust. Along with differences in TV culture between the two countries, it is unlikely that the UK will go as far down the product placement road as the USA.

While some people consider product placement to mean TV shows are “selling out” to advertisers, the reality is that less advertising revenue means fewer new TV shows getting produced. As PVRs have become popular, we’ve already seen the content of TV ads change so that they’re still effective when played at 8x or 16x normal speed. This is just the logical next step for the advertising industry in overcoming the challenges introduced by technology. The trick for advertisers will be to make sure it’s noticeable enough to have the desired effect, but not so noticeable that it makes people change the channel.

Christmas dinner on the box

Most of us have our favourite TV advert – one that we remember from childhood or one which has particularly stuck in our mind. The Bisto advert for example, or the classic Coke Christmas advert are ones which instantly spring to mind.

Today, in a world saturated in brand advertising, the challenge for marketers is a little different. As consumers become more familiar with technology, brands need to go beyond nifty straplines or a happy Santa Claus to stand out from the crowd. As a result, experiential advertising is on the rise.

This Christmas Waitrose is taking TV advertising to the next level and giving consumers something more, with its series of adverts with celebrity chefs Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal. Rather than just watching and absorbing, TV viewers can now engage with the brand by taking a photo on their mobile of a Quick Response code, which will appear at the end of each advert. The barcode will allow them to download a new Christmas app for free, to access recipes, an advent calendar and other tools.

This is an interesting step away from traditional TV advertising and an attempt to interact with audiences beyond the 30 seconds of an advert and after they switch off their TV.

Consuming Content Differently

A record 15 million people may have tuned into watch the final of X Factor last weekend, I wasn’t one of them.

We headed out to the supermarket for a spot of pre-Christmas shopping. While the rest of the country was tuned to the Grand Final, the shopping isles of Tesco were completely empty.

When they got home around an hour after the show had sta
rted they were able to skip the adverts and annoying pre-song interviews thanks to the joys of a PVR.

I wonder how many other viewers opted for a similar tactic it’s just so easy to do, as a consumer this makes a lot of sense but for the advertisers paying for prime time exposure this isn’t what they want to see.

Channel 4 targets students with niche ads via IPTV

Channel 4 is the first commercial terrestrial broadcaster to launch targeted advertising via one of the UK's main IPTV services, Inuk. Ads will be carried around Channel 4 content on the IPTV network and specifically target students.
From our perspective, it’s an important step and one that the industry has been talking about for some time. Yet it’s still only scratching the surface of what’s possible with targeted advertising. Using students as a test bed is, however, a great way to trial the technology with a very media savvy audience. How will the 80,000 students who subscribe to the network respond? The proof is in the pudding so they say. So let’s see what news emerges from Channel 4 over the coming weeks and months.

IPTV "shot in the arm" for falling broadcast ad revenues?

A report published this week by the Advertising Association points to declining revenues for broadcasters in the UK. This follows reports in the US that broadcasters are struggling to sell commercial slots for the upcoming Autumn TV season with the impact of digital video recorders cited as a primary concern.

According to the Advertising Association broadcast ad revenues fell last year by 4.7 per cent from 2005 levels to £4.59 billion. Television has the second largest share of the total £19 billion UK advertising market at 24.1%, after print media with 43.7%.

So, another week and another set of statistics showing the decline in broadcast ad revenues. Audience fragmentation means now that the question is not whether it is a sustained downward trend but rather whether broadcasters can slow the decline.

As broadcasters move to IPTV platforms they will be able to target viewers in micro-segments and take advantage of interactive capabilities, creating a clear business case for advertisers. IPTV will prove to be a shot in the arm for broadcasters.