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Episode 3
Why Advertisers Are Gravitating From Linear TV to Connected TV
About This Episode
We dig into all things TV–OTT, CTV, and linear TV. Plus, we look at the endless advantages of advertising on connected TV.
Jeremy Smith | Vice President, Sales Engineering, Telaria
Meredith Henstchel | Vertical Strategy Lead, StackAdapt
Transcript
Episode Introduction (00:00:00)
CTV is a bigger ecosystem. desktop and mobile really have two players and each, whereas CTV has many more. So you’ve got Roku and Apple and Google and you’ve got all of the TV manufacturers. So the standardization is still coming together, but it’s getting better by dial. And the same concept of mobile where you’ve got a device ID exists in the CTV world. So now buyers are getting more sophisticated and leveraging those device IDs, to understand the consumers better and be able to more effectively target and reach that intended audience versus again, with linear you’re just buying a particular show and hoping that the audience aligns with your your intent, whereas with CTV you can say, I have a pretty good feeling based on some data that that user is looking for a new vehicle so I BMW want to reach that particular consumer.
How Agencies Thrive Introduction (00:01:03)
Curious to know what industry leading marketers are looking to achieve and the ever evolving digital landscape that how agencies Thrive podcast by StackAdapt is dedicated to helping the new breed of forward thinking savvy, lean and mean marketers win in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Time to thrive.
Vitaly (00:01:31)
Thank you for joining us today. My name is Vitaly Pecherskiy. And I’m the host of this podcast. connected TV is a new a very fast growing digital advertising channel. For consumers. It offers the user experience of watching traditional TV and for the advertisers. It gives audience buying and measurement capabilities that of programmatic advertising. I think this is an excellent episode to understand both the fundamentals because it starts with discussion about the basics of CTV, but also gives a great deep dive into more complex topics for those who want to level up their CTV game if they’re already buying it. What I found interesting about this episode is the discussion about programmatic guaranteed where you can reserve inventory ahead of time, and also how real time signals can be used to optimize CTV campaigns mid flight. We’re very excited to welcome our special guest for today’s episode, Jeremy Smith from Telaria.
Meredith (00:02:21)
This is our first podcast with Telaria. So just a brief introduction to myself. My name is Meredith and I work on the solutions team here at StackAdapt. So prior to joining the solutions team, I was on the inventory team working with all of our suppliers, including talaria, managing data and relationships but also building new products. And I was working really closely with talaria on building out RCTV offering, which StackAdapt rolled out last year. So I was really closely looped into that. And then from there, you know helping to work with engineering to get things going. The product team to make sure that everything worked on our platform, but also running education sessions on CTV for not only our clients, but also our sales team. And we really leaned on talaria as they’re the experts in the space forgotten and Sarah, we use a lot of their resources and their advice on how to roll this product. So I’m excited today to talk to Jeremy Smith, who is the vice president of sales engineering at talaria, who has been with the company for over 10 years, and is really an expert in the CTV space. So you know, for someone who’s been working on this product for about a year now, I’m really excited to get his insight on the CTV space and the CTV offering and I hope that listeners will find value in this conversation as well. So Jeremy, thank you for joining me in this podcast. We I mentioned just before the call that I’m sitting here, in a closet in my parents house recording this, which is kind of funny. So you know, we’re excited to do this podcast right now, this time. So I think just to start off, Jeremy, if you could tell us a little bit, you know about your role at talaria and how you got there. And really what Tiller yet does as a company who you are as a company and how you work with partners like StackAdapt we can get started there.
Jeremy (00:04:15)
Yeah, first and foremost, Meredith, thank you for having me. Super excited to chat with you today. And I’m not in a closet in my parents house. But I’m also home today. So interesting times but really appreciate you guys putting this together. So as you mentioned, I’ve been with talaria which was formerly tremor video and prior to that tremor media for about 10 and a half years in a number of different roles. But over the past five or so years, my focus has been on pre sales engineering, so really consulting with buyers and sellers of premium video content to help them understand activating premium video supply. More recently on connected TV The Vision. Prior to my time at at talaria, I was at a company called the feed room. The feed room was a very early software platform for live digital video. So we offered tools to companies like the New York Times, and General Motors, and even government agencies like the State Department to stream video online. So I oversaw the sales engineering team at the feed room, again, that dates back about 10 years. So I’ve been in this space for a while. And, you know, again, I go out on a day to day basis and really spend time with not only our premium publisher partners, but our our DSP, partners like StackAdapt, as well as agencies and brands to really help them understand the opportunity that that exists with video and again, specifically on connected television, just to kind of give you a little bit of background of talaria. So to Laura is a supply side platform, an SSP, if you will. And we provide tools to help video publishers like Sling TV and Pluto TV and Philo and others to manage and monetize their video inventory. And this really encompasses all screens and all devices that are IP connected. So think desktop, mobile connected television, we recently merged with the Rubicon project. So we are now the world’s largest independent sellside advertising platform. We’re super excited about bringing these great technologies together, obviously Rubicon massive scale on the desktop and mobile side for video, and, you know, RCTV expertise kind of coming together to provide buyers and sellers this great omni channel solution. And really we provide, you know, buyers, the single source for reaching OTT viewers, along with things like targeting capabilities. And we do this in every US market as well as in global markets. And just to give you some context, on our software, we have what’s called a video management platform or a DMP, I’ll try to stay away from the acronyms today because I know we get a bit heavy on that. So our VMP allows demand side platforms, agencies brands, to buy premium inventory across multiple publishers. And we’re integrated with about 50 demand side platforms globally, including yours. And really, we give these partners tools to access things like real time reporting, really deep insights on on how they can optimize their budget and, and you know, their targeting strategy.
Meredith (00:07:39)
And you know, having working, having worked with talaria over the past year, I can say that, you know, Tillary really, they are experts in what they do. And I find it to be really helpful. But it’s funny that you bring up the VMD acronyms because something that I find, especially in the CTV, OTT space is all of the TL A’s, or three letter acronyms, and I think that’s something that, you know, can be really confusing for buyers, especially if they’re just entering this space. So, you know, just to kind of start things off. I’m curious if you could define maybe some of these acronyms for listeners, Ott, CTV, VOD. And you know how how to Laurie defines these acronyms compared to some of the other industry partners?
Jeremy (00:08:23)
Yeah, that’s a really great question. And again, it is a challenge in our space that we do have all these acronyms, specifically three letter acronyms. To kind of define how to Lauria thinks about CTV versus OTT. So CTV we think of as premium long form TV content delivered through an internet connection through some sort of streaming device. Now that can look like a physical device like a Roku box, or a Apple TV, or even a stick, right, a fire stick or a Roku stick, or more, you know, more commonly, I guess now smart televisions where they’re IP connected. So really, the ad experience for viewers is big screen, and it’s non skippable, and it’s very similar to Weiner linear TV. When you think of Ott, we think of it as a broader definition, kind of an umbrella term that covers any app or website that provides streaming content, again, via the internet that’s viewable across any screen including desktop, mobile, tablet, and television. So really anything that bypasses a traditional set top box, ie your cable or satellite subscription.
Meredith (00:09:44)
Yeah, I think that’s a really important distinction to make. I think when I talk to buyers about OTT versus CTV, they I think it makes sense you know, as a consumer what it is, you know, if I’m streaming content, I can watch that on my phone. I can watch I don’t have a computer, or I can watch that on a larger screen, like a TV in my living room, right? That’s something that we’re all really familiar with. But when it comes to actually setting up campaigns, how does that differ between, you know, how I’m, what my strategy should be and and which devices I should be focusing on? So I think we’re aligned in this in the sense of, you know, these definitions. When I talked about OTT with our clients, it’s really that content that’s being streamed over the internet. And that’s the video content that we’re all really familiar with, whereas CTV are connected devices is just one of the devices that you can stream this OTT content on. And I think, you know, the CTV aspect of it is especially interesting for advertisers because like you said, it does provide that sort of similar leanback TV experience, because you are watching it on a bigger screen. But, you know, something that I get asked all the time is, okay, that makes sense. But what is my ad actually going to look like on a CTV device in the wild? So, you know, I’m curious if you can speak to what some of the key differences are between a CTD ad compared to that traditional traditional, like linear TV ad? And how those two really stack up against digital video ads in general?
Jeremy (00:11:16)
Yeah, great question. I think there’s really kind of two different buyer silos right now, right, you have the traditional linear TV buyers, and you have the the newer digital buyers that are familiar with desktop and mobile, and obviously some buying CTV as well. And I think what what we try to focus on is helping marketers understand what are the similarities? And what are the differences in these different environments. So, you know, again, you’ve got those two separate silos. So I guess, when you ask about the actual viewing experience, see TV ads, and linear TV ads are pretty much identical. They’re non skippable ads, they play on a big screen, they’re a long broadcast quality television, what you get with CTV is you get this environment that has less channel surfing, this concept of ad pods, so ad pods, meaning that traditional commercial break between content, they tend to be shorter, so people are more likely to see the ads compared to that linear TV environment, where maybe users are switching channels, or on a DVR experience. They’re fast forwarding to the commercials. So a lot of it is education, right for us to help the buying community to understand why these two experiences are very similar. There’s obviously differences in terms of measurement, and targeting and reporting, control, etc, that we can get into. But I think those are kind of the the core focuses of our core focus of the differences between the linear and connected TV environment.
Meredith (00:12:57)
I agree, I agree with you on that one. I think also, you know, you’re bringing up the topics of measurement and targeting. And I think that’s something that we should spend some time on today. Because I think for both linear buyers, and for traditional digital buyers, the way that they target these ads is very different. So I’m just curious if you can talk about, you know, as a linear buyer, how does my targeting change with CTV and OTT? And also as a digital buyer? Can I target the same thing? So what does targeting really look like on a CTV campaign?
Jeremy (00:13:30)
Yeah, let’s start with C. Sorry, let’s start with linear. So with linear TV, you think of it really as a content marketplace, which means buyers go and approach particular publishers, and they’re really looking to buy spots within certain programs, right, and they want to buy within certain programs so that their viewers line up with the intended audience. So give me an example you’ve got female di wires. To reach that audience, you may go buy fixer upper on HGTV, for example. The difference with CTV is that you’re actually buying the audience and you’re doing it really at scale. So CTV inventory reaches only those desired viewers because it’s based on that audience targeting that you’re applying. So really, you’re reducing waste because you’re reaching that intended consumer that female di wire. So if you wanted to reach that audience in a CTV environment, you can do that by layering on that data. And again, reducing waste versus that linear only kind of program schedule. So really from a from a targeting perspective, CTV offers data rich targeting that digital buyers are used to right on desktop and mobile. Whereas you know, linear TVs typically been used to achieve top of the funnel metrics. CTV can really kind of dive in on full funnel so not just bringing brand awareness Bonus, but also helping users engage with that brand beyond the ad exposure. And you know, when you think about addressability, because I know that that’s a term that gets thrown around a lot. It’s historically meant household level targeting on cable connected televisions. But now that people are watching VOD video on demand across multiple devices, so many different screens, the targeting opportunities from a data perspective have expanded significantly, the scale has expanded significantly. So by combining very verified audiences, so with partners like Nielsen or data partners like live ramp, these consumer viewing segments from content providers are much more effective, right? They these advertisers that are looking to reach diehard basketball viewers are more effective in their approach on connected TV because of that one to one relationship.
Meredith (00:16:02)
And for digital buyers, I think, you know, they’re used to having that kind of control over the audience. So are they able to use the audience strategies they would employ on digital campaigns on a CTV campaign as well.
Jeremy (00:16:17)
They can, yeah, so when you think about desktop and mobile desktop, we’ve used cookies for many years. So so obviously setting cookies and using that information to target users, mobile uses, you know, mobile ifas. So ad friendly identifiers to determine that that particular user on an iPhone is a male 18 to 25, and they’re looking for a new vehicle. The same concept applies to CTV, right, CTV is a bigger ecosystem. desktop and mobile really have two players in each, whereas CTV has many more. So you’ve got Roku, and Apple and Google and you’ve got all of the TV manufacturers. So the standardization is still coming together, but it’s getting better by dial. And the same concept of mobile where you’ve got a device ID exists in the CTV world. So now buyers are getting more sophisticated and leveraging those device IDs, to understand the consumers better and be able to more effectively target and reach that intended audience versus again, with linear you’re just buying a particular show, and hoping that the audience aligns with your your intent, whereas with CTV, you can say, I have a pretty good feeling based on some data that that user is looking for a new vehicle, so I BMW want to reach that particular consumer.
Meredith (00:17:49)
And something else that I’d like to call out is, you know, when we’re target digital audiences, on the CTV space, you know, CTV is a cookieless environment. So we are targeting on an IP level. And we can still use these audiences that we have with digital through cross device matching and find them on on the CTV space. But what are some limitations with using IP targeting in this way?
Jeremy (00:18:17)
Yeah, so IP targeting is really interesting, I think, you know, from a very relevant standpoint, you’ve got new privacy concerns, CCPA, and, etc, that are actually preventing the use of some of these data points. So I don’t think IP is necessarily the best metric from a targeting perspective, I think the adoption of a standard Isa A, again, a device ID across these different screens, will allow a more consistent experience, but also give the end user the protection that they need. So when you think about IP address, yes, it does reset from time to time in most cases, that can be days, it can be months. But the device ID if it’s built into the native device, like a Roku device, the consumers in control. So if I go on my Apple TV, I can go in and reset my isa at any time and recreate that profile, just like I’m used to doing on my desktop computer and clearing my cookies. Right. So I think what we’re trying to do is use standards from you know, folks like the IB to ensure that we’re creating a safe environment for the consumers while also providing the buying community really rich data to transact on enrich the right consumer.
Meredith (00:19:41)
That’s really interesting. I think that’s something that yeah, we can definitely spend more time on. But I’m curious, you know, we’re talking about the data that we can get from a standardized approach to the industry. So currently, as it stands, what are some of the metrics that advertisers can report on And where are some of the gaps that we might be missing due to a lack of standardization across the CTV space?
Jeremy (00:20:07)
Yeah, so from a reporting standpoint, to me this is what’s most exciting about digital and about CTV, especially when I’m out talking to, you know, traditional linear buyers is the real time nature of reporting and access to data. So through TL Arias platform, we actually provide a Reporting Suite to both publisher partners, but also buyers to get data in real time, meaning within seconds, so rather than on a linear TV campaign, you you spend the money and then you get data afterwards, you get reporting afterwards, and then you shift your budget for next time. With CTV with digital in general, you get access to our platform to that live information around performance. Now, you mentioned KPIs, what are the things that buyers are measuring and, you know, it’s it’s some of the traditional digital metrics and some of the traditional video metrics. So impressions and fill rate and quartiles and completion rate, making sure that the users consuming the ad, it’s making sure that the intended audience is reached, if I’m layering on that auto entender segment, I want to make sure that the the match rate is very high there on that I’m reaching that audience. But I can do that all again, in seconds, I can go in and actually evaluate performance and shift strategy mid campaign, I think that’s what’s most interesting is, I may find that that hyper targeted segment of auto intenders didn’t have enough scale. So I’ve got this big budget, but it’s not spending because I don’t have a big enough, you know, pool of users to reach that, that fall into that segment. So by understanding that in real time, you can also understand environment based information. So things like the size of the video player, when you think of desktop, what is the actual video player on the screen? on CTV, we know it’s that TV like big screen experience, what device am I serving to? Is it a Roku device? Or is it a tablet, so understanding that in real time as well. So traditional TV buying just doesn’t allow for that real time optimization. So I think when what you’re finding with with CTV, along with that, that sub second recording is that you can act quickly.
Meredith (00:22:26)
I agree, I think that CTV really provides a benefit for linear buyers in that sense, especially the flexibility I know that, you know, like we’re upfront, and, you know, commitments in three weeks in advance or whatever it is, and you can’t really shift budget if it’s not doing what it’s intended to do, or even change your messaging, depending on what’s going on doing some AV testing and whatnot. But I think for digital buyers, if we could speak to that a little bit, you know, digital buyers are really used to end up metrics. And I think, you know, in a CTV environment, we’re missing things like clicks and engagement. So, you know, if we could speak to some of the maybe the gaps in reporting for CTV and how we could potentially overcome that as digital buyers. Just curious on your thoughts there. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer there. But it is something that we run into at StackAdapt being you know, more digital focused, DSP.
Jeremy (00:23:24)
Yeah, so I think on the engagement front, obviously, CTV is different than that kind of immersive handheld experience on mobile or tablet. So CTV you know, living room sit back experience, maybe you have the remote, likely you don’t. So it’s more about this non skippable environment where the whole ad is consumed. And it’s surrounded by premium content. So the idea of those interactive units while they do exist, there are partners like, you know, bright line and others innovate that provide interactive, CTV experiences that that we can help power. It’s ultimately much less applicable to CTV today than it is on on desktop and mobile. You mentioned clicks, right? So clicks is the same thing. You know, if I’m on an Apple TV, and I’m in my Sling TV app, so dish is a partner of ours. And I click on the ad, there’s no element of clickability there, it’s not going to launch a browser, on my, my device. So those kind of digital concepts today aren’t as relevant for CTV. But you do get a much different experience, right? You get that premium linear, like experience broadcast quality content. And I think what’s interesting from a from a metrics perspective, is you’re also getting more TV content reporting. So one of the things that we do for our partners is we provide them tools, again, on both sides, buyers and sellers to share information about what the user is consuming. So Not only that they’re they’re watching on, you know Philo and that they’re watching a live sporting event. But also what’s, what’s the actual game? And what’s the metadata associated with that is there? If I’m watching on Hulu, is there a genre that would be associated with that, or a series show, maybe even a TV rating that’s applicable to me as a buyer that I may move away from? So you’re getting more information about the actual content, which, again, linear buyers are used to because they’re buying their audience within the context of that program? And I think digital buyers are finding that really interesting, because it’s long form as well. Right? So it’s interesting on digital in general to know, where’s my ad gonna run? Before After, but on a short news clip, maybe less interesting than a user who’s engaged with an hour episode.
Meredith (00:25:55)
I think I agree with you in that sense. And, you know, for digital buyers, I think something that we’ve talked about a lot in StackAdapt is really shifting the focus of what the CTV aspect of your digital buy, will accomplish for your campaign. So, you know, shifting away from the engagement metrics, like we’re talking about that aren’t possible, but really understanding the value in the awareness play on a CTV environment, right? Like users are choosing to engage with this content. It’s not like pay TV or cable subscriptions, where you’re flipping through something trying to find content that’s, you know, that you’re interested in, you’re actually going to a video on demand provider and choosing content that you want to watch, where you want to watch it, you know, in the uncomfortable confines of your living room. And inherently, because of that, you’re more engaged with that content, and more relaxed and potentially more receptive to the messaging. You know, one of the things I want to focus on, though, is talking about that deeper level of reporting at the show level, because what we’re finding at StackAdapt is that this information is not always available consistently across all partners and all publishers. So I know that within the bid request, there are fields, you know, for example, for genre to be passed and to get that show level data. But it’s not always filled by the publishers. And I’m just wondering, you know, from a supply side, if you could provide more clarity on that piece, because it’s something that we do run into quite frequently. And our buyers are asking for that show level reporting, and we want to be able to provide it to them, but we can’t always get it. So it’s a big roadblock for us. And I’m just curious, from a supplies perspective, you know, how that all works, and why you could potentially see those limitations.
Jeremy (00:27:43)
Yeah, the TV content reporting is, is super interesting, and it’s evolving. So I think to your point, there’s kind of a couple of steps in this process. The first is for our publisher partners to expose the data to us. Sometimes there’s business rules around that sometimes there’s just technical challenges and getting that metadata that content metadata into to Lara’s platform. The second step of that process is for then us to expose it to you. And in some cases, there are business rules that still prohibit that. So in some of our virtual MVPD partners, their network agreements allow our buyers to understand that they’re buying ABC, but they don’t get to know that they’re buying a particular show on ABC. Now, sometimes that’s from a targeting perspective, sometimes that’s from a reporting perspective. So what you’re getting at is that you’re not always seeing that content object in the bid request, populated with information. And, again, that can happen because we don’t have the information, we don’t have the metadata, or we actually give publishers tools to protect it if they choose. Now, what’s really interesting, and some of our buyers are starting to leverage this, you know, a lot of our publishers won’t expose it in the bid request, because they don’t want you targeting or excluding particular content, but they’re willing to do it as part of our reporting offering. So for your buyers, while they may not know that it’s a particular genre, at the time of purchase, they know the publisher, they know the app, they have all of that transparency, they may not know the exact show or series or genre, but they might be able to get that right after the fact meaning the next day they may be able to log in and understand. Alright, within this publisher, I ran within these shows and within these genres. So that’s something to keep in mind when you think about CTV is that some data is targetable. Some data is reportable and understanding those nuances and I again, I think it’s it’s changing day to day it’s kind of the chicken and egg situation where buyers ask about it and publishers say we’re going to give you that level of transparency, it’s going to cost more that kind of back and forth. And we try to help educate and share that message between both.
Meredith (00:30:10)
I think coming back to the targetable versus reportable data, I think that’s really interesting. And I’m wondering how to Laurie out helps buyers like StackAdapt. And, you know, our end brands, from a targeting perspective, you know, how can we work with you to ensure that what we’re actually buying is the content that we want? And potentially, you know, from a brand safety perspective, we’re not running on shows that we, you know, even if we’re wrong on ABC, and that’s a reputable source, we might not want to run against a certain show. So how can you help buyers in that sense from a targeting perspective? Before we even get to the reportable piece?
Jeremy (00:30:48)
Great question. I think brand safety obviously is paramount to, you know, moving more dollars from linear or more dollars, you know, activating on on digital supplies, specifically on CTV, you know, we get to laria have a very strict onboarding process for our publisher partners to ensure that it is premium brand safe content, that they are providing as much data around the experience as possible. And that we’re as transparent as possible to you the demand side platform, as well as you know, agencies and brands to understand as much as possible about what you’re buying. Now. desktop and mobile, you typically buy on the domain, right? So you’re buying cnn.com, and you know, you’re buying a a warner property. And maybe you get a little bit more, maybe not. The same applies to CTV, you are getting what’s called a bundle ID. And the bundle ID is really a unique data point that identifies the application. So it’s Hulu on an Apple TV, so you know that you’re buying that experience. And then you may as we talked about, get additional metadata around the actual show that you’re purchasing. So that’s the level of transparency that we provide you We also partner with vendors like white ops, from a pre bid perspective, we partner with pixelate, these are companies, if your audience is not familiar, that kind of analyze all of the inventory that flows through our pipes, and in some cases, blocks it before it even reaches the buying community. So with white ops, it’s a pre bid solution, meaning if we see something that they might find as fraudulent, or they’re a little bit uncomfortable with, we block it before we even send that bid request to StackAdapt. So there are certain measures we take, again, in vetting the supply, there are certain measures we take in onboarding, and ensuring we’re transparent as possible, and to a point where our publishers are comfortable. And then we employ technology to help police that going forward, underserved.
Meredith (00:32:55)
So coming back to the show level reporting and metadata level reporting. The first thing you mentioned was that, you know, the first piece of this is that the publishers have to be willing to expose that data. And there’s sometimes reasons why they don’t do that. But something that StackAdapt and Tamara had been working really closely on over the past few weeks, is our programmatic guaranteed offering or PG. So I’m wondering if you could tell us a little bit about that offering and how that could potentially help to overcome this barrier? And maybe, you know, let publishers be a little bit more willing to share that, that data with their buyers.
Jeremy (00:33:38)
Yes, so the programmatic guaranteed opportunity, which we’ve been working on with you guys for a while until ARIA supported this, this deal type for a bit now. And we’re super excited about rolling this out, just to set the stage. For those that aren’t familiar, programmatic guaranteed deals are one to one programmatic deals. It’s based on a guaranteed volume of impressions. And it’s done so at a fixed price via a deal ID. So think of it as a one to one relationship. You have guaranteed volume. In a lot of cases, you’re getting a first look at that supply that maybe you wouldn’t otherwise have access to via the open market or during times of high demand. So those are deals that you can enhance really that traditional direct buying process by combining the control of the programmatic technology, but also with the automated buying process. So again, you know, a lot of our CTV supply doesn’t necessarily exist in the open market. So if I’m a buyer that’s that’s transacting in CTV, I may have to go on those one to one deals with publishers I may choose to transact in an automated guarantee. But also what we do is we can provide I tried deal IDs that gives you scale. So I think that’s another thing for those linear buyers to understand is that, you know, if they were going to 10 different publishers today to activate those linear buys, you can do that programmatically through one deal ID. So one deal ID and StackAdapt can get you access to 20 Different premium CTV publishers with full transparency of who and where you’re buying, but with much more operational efficiency, access to that real time reporting so that you can pick and choose who you want to work with. So it’s just a much more efficient process. And the programmatic guarantee, obviously gives you a bit more control on that.
Meredith (00:35:45)
Yeah, and I think, you know, as we talk about it, setting up these one to one deals with specific publishers, they might be a little bit more willing to share, you know, that level of data that show level data that people are often looking for. And then coming back to the point you mentioned, about reserving this high priority and premium inventory, especially in competitive times. I think this is an important piece ahead of the 2020 US presidential election. And I’m wondering if you could speak to that a little bit, and how CTV can really work with a vertical in the political space for the upcoming election.
Jeremy (00:36:23)
Yeah, so I think with the US presidential election coming up, we have a lot of interest in in CTV from political advertisers. And really, that started really ramped up late last year in 2019, and into the beginning of 2020. And I think there’s a couple of different reasons why those, those agencies are leaning in on CTV, I think, first CTV offers a really flexible environment for executing those campaigns across the funnel, which makes it a really effective channel to reach, say, undecided or persuadable viewers, or excuse me, voters throughout the different phases of the political process. So those different stages, I think the other thing is, is that addressable CTV, it’s vital for political advertisers, because it allows them to target that right audience. So we talked about that earlier in the conversation, again, finding the right context, but also reaching that right audience. And with linear TV. Again, if I’m going out and trying to reach a particular political affiliation, I would buy within a particular program, and I would have waste whereas with CTV, I can really leverage contextual information, just like I’m used to, but also layer on data. So there’s a lot of DMPS, or data management platforms that now have segments of users that align with political affiliation, or again, align that with voters who are undecided. And by leveraging that data, the real time reporting, those political agencies can really reach that audience and understand performance.
Meredith (00:38:03)
And just to your point there, you know, something else that we can do with partners like Telara is leverage audiences from you know, that we’ve potentially served an ad to that you’ve served an ad to on linear TV and collect those audiences and transform them into a digital audience, and retarget them with a CTV campaign. So what that means for political advertisers is that you could potentially, you know, take a group of people that have seen your ad or your competitors ad on a linear TV environment, and then to your point, target them across, you know, a more focused channel like CTV, so that you’re cutting out that waste and really speaking to the right people at the right time with with the right political message. So I think that’s really powerful. Another point on the presidential politics space is that, you know, to speak to young voters, we typically see that audience skew towards CTD. This is the you know, typical cord cutting or cord, never, you know, population. So I’m wondering if we can maybe shift towards some of the trends that we see on the CTV space in terms of the demographics and the types of people that are watching CTV and how that’s really changed over the past years. And you know, what, we’re seeing industry wide in this space with regards to consumption trends and demographics.
Jeremy (00:39:27)
Yeah, so we actually did a study with Sling. So dish, one of our partners for a long time around research into young voters and habits of media consumption. And I think one of the really interesting things that we found was that I think it was almost half of the voters between 18 and 29, relied on CTV so relied on streaming live television, to watch events around political information. So to watch debates etc. And what we also found from that group more than half 66% actually found that the ads were relevant and informative. And more than half actually preferred the ads that they saw on the CTV over traditional linear ads, they typically find that the CTV ads tend to be less disruptive, they tend to use as we spoke about AD pods earlier, they tend to be shorter. So the the length of the overall commercial break tends to be shorter. And I think they, they typically tend to be more relevant, because you have that data component and CTV, where if you’re trying to reach that particular male 18 to 25, and BMW is trying to reach them, it’s an interesting ad, it’s reaching that user who’s who’s looking for a new vehicle. So I think the data play to that, and again, seeing more of these kind of younger audiences, the Gen Xenial audience, lean in on CTV and to find the experience to be positive is is really exciting for us.
Meredith (00:41:10)
And I think also, you know, a lot of these voters or, you know, just more generally, these consumers who are spending time on CTV, they might not, you know, that could be the coordinator audience, or the cord cutters where you can’t actually reach these people and less CTV as part of your spying strategy. So in order to speak to those people, especially voters, right, if you’re trying to reach this crucial group of people, and you don’t have CTV, as part of your media mix, you’re gonna miss out on that audience. And, like you’re saying, this is an audience that is engaged with the content, really receptive to it, and they’re, you know, they’re choosing to watch a specific show, the ads are more relevant. So really, you know, it’s a loss if you’re not capitalizing on that and really speaking to those people. And in my opinion, at least.
Jeremy (00:41:59)
Yeah, and that’s exactly what we see, Meredith, I think we know that more than a third of the US households can’t be reached through traditional pay TV. So I think that metric alone, that data point alone is really interesting. And then when you layer that Gen Z and Millennial audience on to that, it’s just the way that you reach those consumers now is they’re not, you know, they’re to your point cord, nevers or cord cutters, were they They just naturally kind of started with that CTV experience and not that cable box or that that satellite subscription. So completely agree.
Meredith (00:42:36)
And I think another interesting point here is, you know, with live TV, and live sports, especially is usually the last value proposition that ties consumers to their cable subscriptions. Right. So, you know, I think we can’t have this discussion without talking about, you know, in light of the current situation, the COVID-19 situation, and the cancellation of a lot of these live sports and live events. You know, I’m wondering if this could be the final push that some consumers need to finally cut the cord, you know, without live sports, there’s no real need for them to have these cable TV subscriptions. And so they might cut the court as a result of that. And, you know, as they’re trying to seek to stay undertand while people are staying at home, you know, they might subscribe to more video on demand providers and and become accustomed to consuming content that way. So just on that point, I mean, how do you see TV subscription trends changing over the next few months?
Jeremy (00:43:39)
Yeah, this is a really interesting topic. I think. without discounting linear TV, I certainly don’t want to come off that way. I think we have seen a decline not only in overall linear television consumption, but also really that 18 to 49 ratings kind of decreasing. Over the years. The research we’ve done around why people are cutting the cord, the top reason is cost, right, the unsub unsurprising in terms of you know how much it costs to maintain that cable or satellite subscription, and that they can get everything that they that they want to consume through streaming channels. Now, I think one thing to make very clear is that live television, live sporting events, news, political debates, are all already accessible through CTV so you can get those through Sling TV and from Pluto live sporting, you can get through fubo So these are partners that are truly live today and and have a very TV like experience and that those audiences lean into. There’s also a huge array of VOD content so Video on Demand content that they can go back and and view you know, a game that aired last week very easily without a big clunk. DVR that you had to remember to set up, right. And again, this is that TV, that TV experience, I’m in the living room, I’m on a big 60 inch LED. And it’s just like I’m watching that, that traditional TV. There are certainly a lot more streaming services coming online. I think we all know that. So you’ve got, you know, HBO, and recently with Amazon and with Disney. So there are a lot more subscriptions supported services. And I think there are implication for implications for advertisers with that, I think we’re seeing a lot of them debut is ad free and subscription only. But we expect that to change, we saw that with Amazon Prime streaming service, where they move into different models where they have free services that are ad supported, so that they can achieve scale, right, the more eyeballs on this content, the better the the cost to producing the content doesn’t change. So the more viewers, the better. So I think, you know, we’re going to see more of the streaming services incorporate ad based revenue streams without hurting the subscription model. So again, what’s great about CTV is you get all of that live content, you get live sports, the quality is often really, really strong as well, because, you know, from a user experience perspective, some of the things that talaria focuses on are around the quality of the actual creative, the quality of the ad, not only from a, a bit rate, kind of an encoding nature, meaning it has to look really good on a big screen, but also the audio level. So we do some things around audio normalization, so that when you’re watching the game, and that Budweiser ad comes on, that that transition from content to ad is very seamless, it’s not jarring, the ads not super loud, we’ve all seen that. In the early days, we see that on TV, still the local ads come on, and they’re at a different level. So we provide tools to our publishers and our buyers, around user experience. And again, I think that leads to, to assist if I’m gonna watch the game on, you know, on linear TV or on connected if I get a better experience a better ad experience, quality is better. That’s where I’m going.
Meredith (00:47:18)
I totally agree with you. I think this whole conversation is really centered around user experience, right? Like, the reason why we’re seeing such an increase in supply on TV channels is because that’s where the users are going. It makes sense. I think, as a consumer, you know, if I’m able to choose the content I want to watch, it is great quality, you know, the ad experience is great. I have that level of control over my environment and and the programming. That’s where I’m going to shift towards, you know, so I think even as we talk about the streaming services, and how, you know, new ones seem to be popping up all the time. They also sort of called streaming wars, I think that really just speaks to, you know, where consumers are going and how businesses are shifting towards what consumers actually want. They’re shifting towards this user experience where they are in control of the content that they’re consuming, how much they want to watch event when they can watch it. And, yeah, I think it really just speaks to those trends. Like we’re following what the users want here. And I think as advertisers, it’s important to work with our consumers and and provide that level of experience that’s going to keep enhancing, you know, the the overall CTV ecosystem.
Jeremy (00:48:37)
Completely agree. And I would just reiterate like for your buyers, right when when we do that research, and we find that the younger audiences, as I mentioned, actually, like the ad experience, they there’s studies that we’ve done, we’ve done in house research team that find that users are willing to watch the ad more than once. And I think when you have that level of experience, it’s obviously great for the consumer. So publishers are happy. But it’s great for the brands. So it’s not about, you know, just brand awareness. It’s that lower funnel where they’re actually engaging with the brand beyond that first exposure. So it’s pretty exciting.
Meredith (00:49:15)
I totally agree. I think, with user experience, top of mind, I think there’s a lot that can be done in the world of CTV to continue to customize and really work with the consumers to just make it an overall great experience. So I’m excited about that as well. I think you know, I think I’ve learned a lot from you, Jeremy from this conversation. And I hope that our listeners have as well. I’m just wondering if there’s anything else you’d like to add to the overall conversation today. Before we wrap things up?
Jeremy (00:49:49)
Yeah. Again, appreciate you having me on and really excited on some of the initiatives that Laurie and StackAdapt are rolling out together. I would say if I could leave your audience with anything It would be that we help make it easy. You know, there’s a lot again, a lot of acronyms, and there’s a lot of differences in the different screens and the shift and linear to CTV. What we try to do in partnership with you guys is we want to make it as easy as possible, do what you need to do in terms of reaching the audience and hit your KPIs, but not overwhelm you with this new kind of ecosystem. So that’s our main goal. And I think our tool set accomplishes that and will continue to evolve and build tools that make sense for our publishers and our buyers. But if there’s anything that I think about on a day to day basis, it’s how do we dumb this down a little bit and just make it more relevant and easy for buyers to transact?
Meredith (00:50:46)
I agree with you on that. I think it’s all about understanding and education here. So hopefully, that’s what we’ve left our listeners with today’s a little bit of education. And again, thank you so much for doing this podcast, and speaking with me today. And I’m looking forward to chatting with you in the future. So thanks. Thanks again, Jeremy.
Jeremy (00:51:05)
You as well stay safe and healthy. Thanks so much. You too.
Episode Outro (00:51:10)
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