Over-the-top (OTT) TV advertising continues to be a hot topic among brands, agencies and tech partners in 2022. But, as a channel entering a new phase of maturity within the marketplace, the tone and focus of the conversation needs to evolve. After years of considering the OTT opportunity in terms of what it looks like as an individual format, we need to instead start talking about how OTT—specifically programmatic OTT—operates within the broader purview of targeting audiences at scale.
Let’s take a closer look at where programmatic OTT sits today, and where we’re headed.
Reconciling the Fragmented Approaches to TV
Both linear and OTT are likely to be core components of media strategies going forward. However, the distinction between the two continues to pose challenges within marketing organizations, as do the disparate buying approaches to OTT.
The pricing discrepancies between OTT and linear remains a sticking point, as marketers struggle to reconcile the cost of OTT CPMs with linear GRPs. The difference between the two (i.e., the comparative high expense of OTT on a CPM basis) often prompts marketers to consider pushing more of their OTT spend into upfronts, NewFronts and direct campaigns, in an effort to realize perceived cost efficiencies. However, this approach neglects the important bigger-picture benefits of programmatic OTT that advertisers need to be bringing forward in their campaigns.
Traditionally, linear buys have served as a "top of the funnel" branding tactic, and OTT is no different in terms of its branding power. However, OTT’s digital nature provides new attribution opportunities, specifically when executing buys programmatically.
To be clear: Direct buys, in their various forms, will continue to remain a relevant part of many media plans. However, in some cases, direct buys make less sense for an organization, particularly given that not every brand resonates with a specific content channel and one-to-one deals can be quite time consuming for media teams. Furthermore, the frequency capping and cross-channel measurement capabilities associated with direct buys remains limited or non-existent.
In OTT, programmatic delivers a unique opportunity to go beyond video completion rates and allows marketers to look at the effectiveness of their campaigns holistically. This is the superpower that, regardless of whether an advertiser is focused on branding or direct response, we need to be pulling forward within programmatic OTT conversations today.
OTT and the Bigger Picture
The idea that marketers are best served by employing a multi-touch attribution (MTA) strategy isn’t an earth-shattering one. Using this existing strategy and adding new formats, such as OTT, into the mix is the first step to determining its overall effectiveness for a given marketer. As OTT moves into the mainstream of media buys, it needs to play a prominent role not only within the attribution equation, but also in the way that insights are leveraged for optimization.
By incorporating OTT into a brand’s MTA methodology of tracking a consumer’s journey through the sales funnel, in combination with exposed and controlled groups, brands can shed light on the effectiveness of OTT to generate sales lift. Once some understanding of return on ad spend has been established, advertisers can then use programmatic channels to effectively target the desired audiences across various content sources to further generate lift—something direct buys cannot offer.
Moving Beyond a Hyper-Focus on Inventory
Thinking more holistically about OTT and enabling it through programmatic channels can help marketers properly acknowledge the fact that a desired audience has not one but many touch points throughout a given day, week or month—all of which present an opportunity for a brand to get their message or product in front of that consumer. In the digital space, marketers often become hyper-focused on targeting inventory, particularly when it comes to emerging channels like OTT. But ultimately, the goal is to identify high-value audiences and look for ways to get in front of them, whether on a website, mobile phone or the big screen.
By reframing our thinking and approach to OTT, we can ensure this powerful channel is directing its full strength toward driving results among a brand’s highest-value audiences. And, with OTT as with other channels, programmatic will continue to be the best way to deliver a targeted message, across touchpoints and at scale, while providing valuable insights into consumer behavior and sales.
Verve Group is a privacy-first omnichannel ad platform offering programmatic solutions that connect advertisers and publishers to people in real time. ■
