The power of reaching consumers via the largest screen in the house is already well established. What marketers now need to know, in order to truly take advantage of ad-driven CTV, is how to achieve cost-effective scale.

Currently, most CTV ad slots are purchased in a similar fashion to traditional linear TV – via direct insertion order (IO). This ‘white glove service’ has proved effective for many years, and relies upon marketers contacting broadcasters and platforms directly, and agreeing the predetermined details of a campaign – such as cost, run-time, creative – in advance.

However, as CTV has grown, so has the need for a purchasing method that grants marketers the ability to achieve optimal ROI on CTV. Programmatic purchasing has evolved alongside CTV and now meets this need to provide marketers with a buying experience similar to that of digital, to more effectively maximise the potential of their ad budgets.

The evolution of programmatic CTV

In its early usage, the auction-based programmatic purchasing method was mostly utilised in order to sell unused ad inventory in digital environments. But as CTV publishers and platforms continue to permeate audiences, and buyers take to the increased control of the purchasing process that programmatic enables, the amount of spend in programmatic CTV has grown – spend increased by 97% in EMEA between 2020 and 2021 alone. As demand from buyers has increased, CTV publishers have responded by making more of their inventory available for programmatic trading.

Where programmatic CTV has differed from its digital counterpart is in its increased use of private marketplace deals. At its core, programmatic buying is an automated auction that allows buyers and sellers to be connected rapidly. Deals can be achieved via an open auction, where any number of parties can take part in the process, or via private auctions, where a publisher invites trusted advertising partners to participate. Additionally, there are preferred and guaranteed deals, offering priority access and pricing on pre-negotiated terms.

Private market auctions have flourished in CTV due to the nuances of the channel. TV ads are the most trusted among UK consumers, and it is therefore no surprise that CTV publishers want to keep a close watch on which brands are advertising on their platforms to ensure high quality ad experiences. For marketers, CTV is also unique in that data activation is often coming from the supply side of the programmatic chain, enabling marketers to access the rich first-party data of media owners and device manufacturers.

Tailoring your buying

While increasing amounts of spend is moving to programmatic, direct purchasing via an IO  also allows an effective way to transact for both buyers and sellers, and in many ways provides a similar offering. Buyers are guaranteed a quality ad slot while having clarity over delivery, while also able to harness CTV publishers’ premium inventory for a set price.

However, for buyers and sellers looking for flexibility in their transactions, programmatic purchasing can offer some additional perks. Guaranteed programmatic deals, for example, act in a similar way to direct IO — selling for a fixed price with a specific amount of inventory. But, additionally, doing so programmatically enables buyers to retain the benefits of utilising a DSP, giving users increased control — easing workflow and allowing for optimisation mid-flight — and  more holistic reporting.

But, while programmatic purchasing may technically be able to offer these benefits, advertisers might currently find their programmatic choices restricted by publisher capabilities and offerings. Buyside appetite for programmatic executions shows no signs of slowing, so ultimately CTV publishers and broadcasters who are amenable to programmatic routes stand to benefit.

Taking buying to the next level

Programmatic ad buying in digital environments is at a crossroads. With third-party identifiers set to be phased out, there is an increasing importance being placed on first party data — and as a result, on the owners of this data, such as publishers and device manufacturers — to ensure effective targeting and measurement.

Traditional measures such as Barb have provided advertisers with a base level of insights in order to effectively run campaigns. However, the emergence of technology like automated content recognition (ACR) – a privacy-first, anonymised alternative content identification technology – and first party data from platforms and device manufacturers gives buyers more granular insights to drive their campaigns at scale and speed.

These insights can then be fed back into a marketer’s buying strategy, allowing for fine-tuning of campaigns in-flight. Furthermore, utilising programmatic CTV can turn the medium into the cornerstone of an omnichannel campaign. This approach – which gives marketers the ability to run a cohesive, holistic campaign across multiple devices – allows for optimal targeting and retargeting throughout the sales funnel. By identifying and retargeting exposed audiences across devices, with differing creative, marketers can better tell the story of their campaign and grab consumer attention.

For marketers looking to generate the best ROI, and gain maximum reach and impressions via CTV in a cost effective way, finding a balance between direct and programmatic deals is vital. While there are currently similarities in both purchasing methods, as publishers compete for ad spend investments, the additional flexibility of programmatic and offer of tailored purchasing options will become a differentiator. In turn, the greater autonomy, transparency, measurement, and targeting capabilities will become central to every campaign on the channel, and buyers will increasingly be looking towards programmatic CTV.

This may come as a surprise given CTV’s similarities to mobile, where data flows in abundance, even with Apple’s restrictions to ID-level targeting. Both operate through devices and apps, but where they diverge is in the availability and accessibility of data. Equipment manufacturers and, to a lesser extent, streaming providers are holding their assets close to their chest, perhaps seeking to avoid the commodification which devalued data on mobile and the open web.

While this guardedness is understandable, it is impeding cross-platform measurement and targeting capabilities, making it challenging for buyers to deliver consistent ROI while driving up CPMs for sellers.

To solve this problem, brands need to explore how adtech can bring life to this parched ecosystem, allowing data to flow to those who need it without compromising its value or its safety.

Lack of identity spine weakens CTV’s cross-platform capabilities

ID solutions are perhaps the most essential adtech solution for delivering effective targeted CTV campaigns, as they allow brands to identify users across different platforms and devices. With ID solutions, brands can deliver relevant ads to consumers no matter where they are, ensuring they reach the right audience at the right time.

For example, an ID solution can help advertisers pseudonymously recognise a user who watches a show on a connected TV and then clicks on a social media ad on their phone by linking the user’s CTV device ID with their mobile advertising ID. Being able to consistently recognise users is also vital for universal frequency capping and limiting ad exposure across platforms to maximise incremental reach. The advertiser can also deliver relevant ads on other connected devices that the user interacts with, providing a personalised and sticky experience across devices.

Unfortunately, with so many Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) in the market offering their own variation of device IDs and strictly controlling access to them, CTV lacks the identity spine needed to deliver accurate frequency control and measurement. The static nature of big-screen TVs has seen IP addresses stand in as identifiers, but this falls apart the moment a brand wants to measure outside of the CTV ecosystem (for example, in a cross-channel campaign that also targets mobile and web) or target an individual rather than a household.

Data exchanges are a bustling market of consumer insights

Data exchanges are marketplaces that act as intermediaries between data owners and buyers, making it easier for brands to access the information they need for effective targeting. Data exchanges can offer a range of data types, including demographic, behavioural, and location data.

For the media owners that set the boundaries of what is possible in CTV campaigns, data exchanges offer an opportunity to apply data targeting to campaigns — à la programmatic deals. This, in turn, increases the value of their inventory to a wider range of advertisers.

Brands, meanwhile, can use data exchanges to overcome limitations within their own data. This is particularly useful for brands that have been unable to use first-party data to make up for the shortfall of data availability in the post-GDPR era, as is the case for many CPG brands, for whom TV is a key touchpoint.

Most of all, CTV needs technology to empower data collaboration

The best way to help brands quench their thirst for data in the CTV ecosystem is to open the floodgates of data collaboration. If all siloed pockets of data (whether first, second, or third-party) along with all identifiers and ID-enriching signals can be unified and appropriately pseudonymised, the limitations of each component part can be overcome. Overlapping audiences between brands and platforms can be segmented and targeted not just within CTV, but across the wider advertising ecosystem.

Clean rooms are one of the ad tech solutions built to facilitate data collaboration. These are secure environments that allow brands to share and analyse data without accessing it directly, with cryptographic scrambling preserving user privacy and data ownership while still delivering valuable insights. In the UK, CTV broadcaster Channel 4 and retail media network Nectar used a clean room to discover shared audiences.

However, clean rooms are far from plug and play. Both parties must have their data organised to be compatible with the clean room they are using, which does not guarantee compatibility with any other clean rooms the brand may want to use. It is a significant investment of time, resources, and money to set up a clean room, and data sets must be regularly re-matched to ensure insights are up to date. Then, after all of that, there is no guarantee that anything actionable can be taken out of them.

Data collaboration, then, must not be limited to certain tools but be embraced at a cross-platform, cross-solution level. ID resolution and data exchanges can make more data available on CTV, while data collaboration tools can facilitate the smooth exchange of first and second-party data between the supply and demand side. A dedication to interoperability and an acknowledgement that no single approach can solve the ecosystem-level data drought will be necessary for CTV to thrive.

As CTV continues to grow and evolve, the role of adtech solutions in unlocking the full programmatic potential of the ecosystem will become increasingly important. With the right adtech tools, the promise of a CTV ecosystem that delivers the best of both linear TV and digital advertising can be realised. It will take collaboration, a more open attitude to data sharing, and perhaps some consolidation for us to bring life to CTV’s data desert.

DoubleVerify is a leading software platform for digital media measurement, data and analytics. TVision provides second-by-second analysis of how viewers are watching TV and currently maintains viewing panels in the U.S., UK and Japan. DoubleVerify’s ad exposure data, including viewable time and screen share will be combined with TVision’s viewer presence and eyes-on-screen ad attention signals.

“Our alliance with TVision is a significant stride towards comprehensive and reliable attention measurement in CTV,” says Daniel Slotwiner, SVP of Attention at DoubleVerify (DV). “By aligning TVision’s viewer presence and eyes-on-screen attention data with our own ad exposure and user engagement data, we are establishing a new standard for assessing the true impact of CTV advertising – ultimately driving superior outcomes for brands across the globe.”

Technical integration between DV and TVision will be ongoing over the next few months and the aim is to offer U.S. customers a closed beta in the second half of 2023. Broader market release will follow.

TVision is DV’s only partner currently for holistically measuring attention in connected TV. A spokesperson said DV will continue to work with TVision, and explore other enhancements and partnerships, as it expands geographical coverage beyond the U.S.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with DoubleVerify to advance the adoption of attention measurement across CTV environments,” declares Yan Liu, CEO & Co-Founder of TVision. “Our partnership enables marketers to gain deeper insights into where and when they get the most value in CTV.”

DV already measures ad exposure globally across devices including CTV.  It analyses over 50 data points related to exposure and consumer engagement for digital ads and devices.

Vevo represents the music labels, and offers a VOD catalogue of 800,000 titles as well as FAST channels, with its content available through multiple platforms including Samsung TV Plus, Roku, Apple, Amazon and also Pay TV platforms like Sky Q. Vevo on YouTube accounts for a large part of the reach for the music-focused programmer. McGurn describes Vevo as a ‘high reach, low frequency’ solution for advertisers, with that characteristic largely a result of how people watch music videos.

“This is what advertisers come to us for: reach extension with moderate frequency,” he declares. “What is interesting about campaigns on Vevo, from advertisers across consumer electronics to film and auto insurance, is that no matter what you buy from us, we deliver the audience, but frequency never reaches above three. That speaks to the diversity of the video offer. For one advertiser, we had to narrow the reach to dial-up the frequency they wanted, but I think it is a better challenge to increase frequency than deal with too much frequency.”

Vevo has rapidly expanded its FAST channel offering and viewers can now find up to 15 of these linear (ad supported) streamed channels on a typical connected TV platform. This is a lean-back, curated experience and because the channels are genre-based (spanning Pop to Hip-Hop, Country and Latino, for example) or decade-based (e.g., ‘80s or ‘90s) advertisers can reach largely different groups of people via each channel. “There is massive incrementality – as much as 95% incrementality,” reveals McGurn, drawing on research that Vevo presented at the IAB NewFronts in New York.

For consumers, FAST is about removing the decisions needed every four minutes on what to watch next, McGurn says. “It is too much work to constantly choose, and with the curated channels you have passive playback and if you don’t like what is on one channel, you can go to another. We can still keep them [the viewer] on the Vevo network. For us, it is also fun. We like being a curator and that is what the music industry expects from us – we are supposed to be promoters of new music and fandom.”

Asked if Vevo would like to be more than an app on Pay TV/MVPD platforms, in the way that direct-to-consumer streamers like Disney and Netflix are being deeply integrated into the home screen content promotions today, McGurn would only say that “we know our content will be popular wherever it sits, but it is not for us to decide how it should be promoted.” He did admit interest in Vevo appearing within broadcaster streaming (BVOD) services, as some broadcasters start to include third-party content. Vevo is not found in any primary BVOD services yet, “but I would see us as a great content addition in that environment.”

Another part of the Vevo ‘pitch’ to advertisers this year is its increasing understanding of context, down to the detail of what appears within scenes in music videos. This is then used to better match advertising to content. The company already offered mood-based advertising (since February 2021, when advertisers could start buying against moods like ‘heartfelt’ or ‘empowering’, for example). Most recently the company added the ability to match advertising creative to the ‘creative’ look-and-feel of a music video.

Colours, and even the beat of music, can be matched to ads. One illustration shown privately used a music beat and colour-feel that fed exceptionally well into an ad for an electric car. This is better seen than explained, but McGurn gives an example that is easy to imagine: you have an ad creative that is half-human and half-animated, and it might match well against the famous Aha video for Take on Me.

With the help of an AI tech partner, Vevo has also processed its entire music catalogue to find every example where a music video contains a brand representation, whether a coke bottle or a Cadillac car. This has been used to create a targeting package where brands can advertise against the content that contains these images. This is part of a second-by-second analysis of each video to uncover and then label elements of interest, whether logos, items or themes. Advertising packages can also be created for videos tagged with the same keywords – and the example given is ‘beach’ and ‘party’ to create a ‘beach party’ viewing hour, with brand sponsorship available.

McGurn admits the AI-enabled video intelligence does not foretell a tectonic shift in the advertising industry – but it does match advertiser desires for advertising UX innovation. He observes that Vevo can invest in this kind of innovation because its content is evergreen. Sweet Child O’ Mine (Guns N’ Roses) received approximately 200 million views across the Vevo network last year, as one illustration of his point.

“You could not do this with television shows because everyone watches them and then they’re done, albeit with some later binge viewing. With music videos, we know the viewing and the ad revenues will be the same in ten years’ time, using the same insights.”

However, as the market becomes more fragmented, and the increased cost of living hits the pockets of UK audiences, a growing number of viewers are seeking out ad-supported CTV offerings. Two-thirds of consumers state they would prefer watching a free ad-supported streaming service over a fee-based subscription option.

And where consumers head, brands are sure to follow. Marketers spent nearly £1 billion on advertising in CTV environments last year. This growth is only set to continue, with a predicted £2.3 billion being spent in 2026 in the UK alone. At the same time, this expanding market has become a double-edged sword for advertisers. While CTV offers increasing insights and access to more varied and niche audiences at scale, the audiences are watching across a number of platforms — with more options being introduced regularly — creating real challenges for cross-platform media buying and measurement.

With a growing interest in CTV’s potential to enhance the consumer viewing experience while also improving ROI on TV ad spend, advertisers must identify ways in which to measure, and maximise, the success of investments. This is especially true when investing in new channels and for those taking an experimental or staged approach in redistributing spend from linear to CTV — to provide accurate measurements of success, a holistic view across multiple channels must be achieved.

For the TV advertiser, new targeting and measurement strategies, such as those using Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) — when used in conjunction with traditional TV measurements — can solve fragmentation and empower marketers to make smart, data-driven advertising decisions.

Obtaining the full picture of TV data

Traditional industry measurement organisations, such as Barb, have long played a role in understanding audiences, and as TV viewing habits have evolved, so too have their practices. Barb, for example, recently announced plans to broaden its measurement remit to include video streaming platforms in a reflection of increased viewers on these channels. But if advertisers are to understand, and optimise, the success of their investments they will need to achieve a full audience, cross-channel picture, which broader, traditional industry reports alone cannot provide.

Using new datasets such as ACR — a privacy-first, anonymised alternative content identification technology — advertisers can understand a viewer’s content consumption to generate a more detailed picture of their viewing profile. By conducting a ‘glass-level’ analysis of content — in other words, by reviewing everything that is seen on the TV screen — visibility of audience behaviours and preferences is increased.

Marketers are able to analyse not only the audience’s source, whether it be an inbuilt app, games console or other device, but also reveal additional information such as network, show name, and viewing time. Insights like this, gathered from ACR, can also be used to supplement audience segmentation for smarter cross-device media plans.

Unifying data for effective activation

In such a fractured market, the unified, holistic oversight that ACR gives marketers is indispensable. But gathering data is only the first step towards maximising ad spend. Marketers must activate their findings to effectively drive targeting across smart TV and connected devices environments.

Content-level targeting has always assisted marketers to reach their defined audience, but ACR data takes this targeting a step further; ACR is deterministic. It allows marketers to more accurately advertise to niche audiences across various content inputs, via packages of targeted anonymised audience segments.

The ingestion of data across multiple devices and channels means audiences can be filtered into specific demographics — gamers, for example, can be identified based on their gaming-device usage and those insights leveraged to place relevant ads on their smart TV, and other connected devices. Obtaining data diversity is important to enhance campaigns, but achieving it without a robust advertising solution can be difficult. By bringing all audience data under the same roof and layering ACR data with an advertiser’s first- and third-party data sets — such as demographics, geo-location, and shopping behaviours — marketers can build fuller audience profiles in a privacy-compliant manner.

Understanding campaign success

With media budgets under increasing scrutiny, there is a pressing need to measure and prove the ROI of advertising campaigns — especially for TV — and to understand on a granular level the investments which proved successful or unsuccessful, in order to improve effectiveness.

Linear TV has been hampered in the past by its more panel-based approach to measurement and inability to provide for deterministic insights, leaving advertisers with a limited line of sight to actual results. By contrast, ACR offers advanced measurement capabilities — including ad completion rates and conversions such as tune-in, app downloads, web traffic, location behaviour, and even purchase — that allow marketers to better understand the incrementality of their ad campaign.

The ability to leverage deterministic channel and audience data, along with supplementary industry insights, means marketers can not only optimise their marketing activations, but also continue to recognise and invest in the most suitable CTV channels for their objectives and audience.

As the CTV advertising space continues to become more competitive, marketers cannot dive into their investments blind. Granular audience measurement data is the antidote to this, providing a holistic view across input devices — vital to the optimisation of campaigns and audience targeting. While traditional industry measurements can be a strong foundation for creating a successful campaign, supplementing the insights with additional details derived from ACR data will give marketers the vital insights they need.

Now that the once-quaint delivery system has expanded to encompass over-the-top (OTT), subscription and ad-supported video on demand (SVOD, AVOD) and free ad-supported television channels (FAST), and the broadcasts of old have been re-imagined as “content,” “digital video” and “streaming,” neither facet of TV is as reliable for impacting viewers as in times past.

Understanding audiences is now more complex as advertisers aim for hyper-targeting while seeking to avoid underserving or oversaturating households.

The challenge is not simply how to cast the widest net for attracting viewer attention; it’s mastering complementary messaging, accurate segmentation and extending audience touchpoints.

What are advertisers to do?

You’re Only as Good as Your Data

To start, advertisers obviously need reliable intelligence on consumer viewing habits. At TiVo, our first-party, 100 percent deterministic and nationally representative set-top-box data – covering millions of active households – is the key building block of our viewership-based product suite. Because our content network is device-agnostic, we’re unconstrained by any Smart TV brand or type of streaming device in our ability to confidently target connected TV audiences to drive incremental reach with linear viewers.

We have successful use cases in the U.S. for our TiVo Xtend™ CTV product, which layers our data – we have the industry’s most representative – across premium CTV inventory to access consumers beyond their broadcast channels and Pay TV subscriptions. And, we’re driving measurable results, such as achieving 25 percent incremental reach for a linear series premiere through CTV video ad targeting.

Personalisation Makes the Difference

An overwhelming majority of respondents to the TiVo Q2 2022 Video Trends Report survey indicated a willingness to share data in exchange for receiving personalised video entertainment experiences. Conversely, consumers have dwindling patience for irrelevant messaging or programming.

They want to be served content that suits their sensibilities; those who don’t deliver on this desire risk losing exacting consumers to competitors.

Putting the “Smart” in Smart TVs

With the launch of TiVo’s independent media platform, TiVo OS, we’re delivering a first-of-its-kind neutral platform – the ultimate independent Smart TV operating system. By offering viewers a fully integrated experience with live hybrid TV and top streaming services, along with natural voice navigation and highly personalised recommendations, we’re providing new ways for consumers to enjoy TV, and for partners to engage with audiences.

Preparing for What’s Next

Just as there are sure to be new acronyms to add to the mix, there will be changes, enhancements and disruptions impacting how consumers discover, watch and interact with content.

What won’t change is the importance of adapting to those changes while maintaining a data-driven, tailored approach to finding, delighting and retaining viewers.

Globally, Vevo has more than 80 linear FAST channels via more than 30 distribution partners. The company says that it is extending its capabilities in order to work with more distributor and advertising partners – especially those in the FAST space – as it expands on CTV worldwide.

Natalie Gabathuler-Scully, Senior Vice President, Global Revenue and Distribution Operations, Vevo, says: “Amagi’s cloud-based infrastructure enhances our ubiquity and bolsters our flexibility as we navigate growth, and helps us meet global CTV content delivery and ad tech requirements to ensure we maximize our revenue potential.”

Srinivasan KA, co-founder, Amagi, comments: “We are proud to manage the delivery of programming and ads flowing through Vevo’s rapidly growing global CTV footprint,” said. “As their technology partner, Amagi offers Vevo the ability to quickly and cost-effectively create, distribute and monetize content with best-of-breed cloud-based solutions. We look forward to continuing to amplify Vevo’s reach across platforms and geographies as the company scales to new heights of global growth.”

Gareth Westhead, Senior Specialist, Client Partnerships – UK, VDX.tv, elaborates: “We take a brand’s video asset, which tends to be a 20 to 30 second creative – and we create interactive video units for them which could run across desktop, mobile devices. We have 18 different formats, but critically the emphasis is on CTV.

“What our video units actually do on the CTV is the video will pan back ever so slightly, offer additional branding –  often referred to as an L-shaped additional branding opportunity. This can include a QR code. When the consumer sees that advert, we then re-impact them on their personal device within a 24 hour period.”

Westhead says this form of sequential targeting gives continuity to the story transmitted to viewers through CTV ad campaigns. It also allows brands’ to re-impact viewers after they have already seen an ad on the device they trust the most – the big screen.

Amer Attyeh, Head of Client Partnerships – MENA, VDX.tv, believes the solution can help drive consideration. He says: “When we look at the purchasing funnel, VDX.tv lives in the mid-funnel where we can move viewers a little bit down. But the most important thing is that the solution we have really helps magnify a brand in the minds of people – deepening their connection to brands through attention, relevancy, interactivity and frequency. In a nutshell, we help move consumers from awareness to consideration  by tipping customers in a brand’s favour.”

Attyeh also notes that VDX.tv has over 15+ performance metrics which brands can use to assess the success of their campaign. These include click-through rate, skips, interaction rate, as well as the average time spent on the ad.

Westhead believes that with the rapid development of new technologies, brands hoping to achieve cut-through with consumers need to offer engaging ads. According to Westhead, interactivity is an effective way of doing so.

He also comments on the change in the evolution of viewing behaviour: “As consumers we’re all guilty of double screening – having our phones in our hands while we’re watching TV. Our product compliments that. The connected TV market evolved substantially during the pandemic and I think, as we all started consuming more content (be that on SVOD or AVOD) we got used to the notion of interacting with it in multiple ways and leaning forward more with our TV units.”

The move will see Samsung TV Plus deepen its geographical smart TV footprint, with new TVs offering the service being sold in markets including Italy, Spain, Turkey, New Zealand, the United States and the UK.

Original Device Manufacturers (ODMs) expected to use Tizen OS include Atmaca, HKC and Tempo, with new smart TVs under brands Akai, Bauhn, Linsar (distributed by Tempo) being available as of this month in Australia.  Additional brands, including Vispera (distributed by HKC) based on the operating system will be made available in Q4 of this year.

Yongjae Kim, EVP of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics, said: “2022 has been a memorable year for Tizen OS as we celebrate its 10th anniversary and the very first Tizen-powered smart TVs available from other brands. Starting with these new Tizen-powered smart TVs, we will continue to expand the licensing program and introduce Tizen OS and its ecosystem to more products and brands around the world.”

According to Samsung, there are currently 200 million people from 197 countries who use Samsung smart TVs powered by Tizen.

PubMatic – an independent technology company delivering digital ad supply chain – commissioned the company to survey 200 U.S. advertisers and 100 UK advertisers between June and July this year. These advertisers spend a minimum of $25 million annual in the U.S. and £8.3 million in the UK on video ads and “influence programmatic CTV/OTT ad strategy.” Advertiser Perceptions also conducted four phone interviews about CTV and OTT video ad buying, transparency and Content Object signals.

Data signals such as Content Object give brands information about the content and context of media placements bought programmatically, and the study says that publishers who provide this additional transparency enjoy increased demand.

The survey finds that 62% of U.S. brands and 82% of UK brands agree that they would increase their spend with partners that provide data such as Content Object signals. Additionally, 57% and 64% of U.S. and UK brands respectively stated they would pay a premium for the transparency Content Object signals gives them.

According to Advertiser Perceptions, in-depth interviews with advertisers suggested Content Object signals are critical for advertisers to understand what they have already purchased, however only about half of U.S. advertisers and six in ten UK advertisers, current use Content Object in their media buys.

Nicole Scaglione, VP of CTV and OTT Business at PubMatic, said: “This study proves the critical value of transparency to increase demand for programmatic CTV. The supply chain of the future uses data to bring advertisers closer to their audiences, in turn creating more demand for publishers. In particular, Content Object provides a key path for publishers to share signals that give media buyers the contextual information they need to meet campaign goals and spend more in CTV.”

Nicole Perrin, VP of Business Intelligence at Advertiser Perceptions, commented: “Programmatic CTV gives advertisers more targeting options, better measurability, and real-time decisioning. Our research shows that adding signals such as category and genre drive brands to increase spend, shifting from linear and other channels.”