The great marketing potential of CTV: Hear it from the experts

With the country witnessing a digital boom, television as a medium is going through a huge transformation. Traditional cable TV has given way to connected TV, forcing businesses to redesign their marketing strategies accordingly so that they reach out to the audiences where they are.

Teads, a company specializing in CTV and digital advertising, recently organized a roundtable discussion with marketers from different companies to speak about strategies, opportunities and challenges of CTV marketing. The participants were: Aayush Arora, Paid and Owned Media Lead, The Estée Lauder Companies; Amruta Pawar, General Manager - Marketing Strategy & Digital Marketing, Hafele; Arti Saxena, Director and Head of Marketing, India; World Gold Council; Krishal Mehta, DGM Marketing, Samsonite; Natasha Kapoor, Strategic Media Planning Lead APAC, META; Priyanka Bisen Shah, Dead of Digital Marketing, Bajaj Auto; Toranj Mehta, Director Marketing, Forevermark- De Beers Group; Tishya Relia, Digital and DTC Lead – Kérastase India, L'Oréal India. The session was moderated by Pedro Mariani, VP, of Strategic Accounts-APAC, Teads and Riddhi Pimputkar, Director, Enterprise Solutions-India, Teads.

The discussion started with the participants highlighting that CTV is an omnichannel platform where targeting and retargeting have great potential.

Mariani then asked the table how they looked at CTV.

“A few days ago, I was watching YouTube on my TV and there was a 30-second unskippable ad that reminded me about my childhood and TV. For the last few years, we have gotten used to the six-second thumb-stopping content, and suddenly, I am seeing and making 30-second ads again, I think it’s a very interesting space,” explained Relia.

Kapoor added, “CTV is something that burst out in the open in the last few years. Earlier India did not have many options. But now we have reached a point where there are a lot of options, and we are wondering which is the right one, and how much is enough.”

Arora opined, “It’s the medium to target premium, luxury buying audience. And we can target the entire household.”

“With CTV, I can use my first-party data, bring in personalization, select my audiences, show them the ad and do a full-funnel activity. It is very exciting for me. The second thing is that with CTV being available on DV 360, I can control the frequency. It is helpful as I can strategize accordingly,” noted Shah.

The next question that Mariani and Pimputkar asked the participants was - How does the shift from linear to CTV help?

Arora replied, “Today a smart TV is available for Rs 6,000. Within the next five years, we’ll see more and more people completely letting go of linear TV. And then, the producer, the provider, and the platform will come together to target the same audience. It will drive the overall frequency of campaigns.”

Mariani spoke about strategy for and challenges of working on different brands when it comes to CTV. He also talked about the difference in various markets and how unique methodologies work in different cases. Mehta spoke about the challenges when it comes to the creative for CTV. “The ability to crack a creative having a luxury feel is something that we are looking forward to,” he mentioned.

Relia then moved the conversation to metrics. And Krishal Mehta said, “The objective matters when it comes to strategizing. And hence campaigners will be able to derive metrics from the same.”

Speaking about case examples, Pawar said that the brand is using tools in order to optimize the opportunity. She said, “Heatmap is a tool that helps us to optimize in one go for different platforms.”

All through the session, Mariani gave examples of use cases, including use of different creatives for Audi.

Lastly, Saxena addressed the issue of data prominence and privacy.

Mariani answered saying that brands have guidelines when it comes to CTV, and Teads helps brands run campaigns without identifying the users.

“We still need to navigate with privacy; every market has a framework. As marketers, we have to be cognizant of the same and yet be able to have our communication out. Contextual targeting is something that is helping ads on CTV.”

He pointed out that contextual advertising is helping brands in reaching their audiences without many obstacles. However, marketers still have to figure out whether they are targeting the right audience. And Teads is working towards that, he added.