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.

The BBC, YouView and Connected TV StandardsThe BBC, YouView and Connected TV Standards

Roly Keating, director of archive content at the BBC, spoke recently at the UK Digital TV Group (DTG) summit about how the company is approaching the delivery of content to multiple devices. While some reports have picked up on his comments that YouView is only one part of the BBC's strategy, I’m not sure how surprising this is. With iPlayer being rolled out on more and more devices, and with a huge library of Web-based content, the BBC can’t afford to put all their eggs in the YouView basket – either politically or in terms of their public service remit.

Like many organisations, the BBC is wrestling with the problem of delivering content to multiple devices. The approach to connected TV being taken by the DTG and other industry bodies can offer significant advantages here, by bringing together standards from the web and TV in a pragmatic way: one that that brings the two worlds closer together while recognising the differences between them in business models and product lifecycles. Similarly, the BBC is in an excellent place to help shape that, work by providing concrete examples of where the gaps are today.

The BBC has a long history of involvement in standardisation, and this is another example of where they can take a leading role in standardising an approach to multi-screen delivery of connected TV services based on today’s connected TV standards.