Why marketers are going the CTV way to explore open internet

The wide spaces of the open internet have never looked more inviting to industry players who are now exploring areas outside Google, Meta platforms and retail giants. With 250 million more Indians expected to be part of the online world by 2025, advertisers are realizing that there are other ways of reaching consumers, and one of them is Connected TV.

As discussed in our recent story, events like the ongoing IPL tournament, being screened free by JioCinema, gives a fillip to CTV adoption with an increasing number of households in India cutting the cord. Increased penetration of fast and cheap internet, decreasing prices of LED screens, attractive financing schemes, and other factors have already seen practically every TV sold in the country today to be capable of connecting to the internet, and more consumers are logging in daily.

What are the other factors drawing marketers towards CTV?

Advantage CTV

“CTV serves as the bridge between traditional television and the open internet, offering a unique blend of reach, targeting capabilities, and interactive engagement. As more advertisers recognize the potential of CTV in reaching audiences on the open internet, its role in the advertising ecosystem continues to grow, providing a great place for brands to connect with consumers in meaningful ways,” says Nikhil Kumar, Chief Growth Officer, mediasmart by Affle.

CTV represents a vast ecosystem encompassing FAST channels, OTTs, Games, and News, to name a few from a viewership lens and these offer diverse opportunities to engage with the viewers, Kumar added.

Navin Kathuria, EVP - Integrated Media, MudraMax, points out that globally, India has the 2nd highest per capita consumption of online video. “Of the 500-million odd online video viewers, approximately 75-80 million are CTV viewers and as per various empirical studies, this is one of the fastest-growing segments.” 

According to Kathuria, out of the current CTV universe, 41 per cent have been added in the past one year, while 80 per cent of linear TV viewers are planning to switch to CTV in the next one year. The average weekly time spent on CTV is at par with that on Linear TV (albeit on a lower base).

“With these kinds of encouraging numbers, CTV definitely looks like a lucrative option for advertisers. With CTV offering advertising options such as home page/masthead takeovers, landing page pre-rolls etc., viewability and noticeability on CTV gets a boost. There could be scenarios of a brand getting even 100 per cent SOV on certain periods,” says Kathuria.

Global Web Index’s latest report revealed that Indians, on average, spend as many as 8 hours a day online, 70 per cent of which is spent on the open internet, which is a huge opportunity for marketers.

Opening the Internet on TVs

Tejinder Gill, General Manager, The Trade Desk, says the open internet has flourished with the rise of new media channels, such as OTT, CTV and music streaming. Although walled gardens have gained significant users over the past decade, the open internet has gained prominence, reaching almost 600 million users in India, 11 per cent higher than that of walled gardens. 

Even though consumers spend less than half (48 per cent) of their digital media time on walled gardens, marketers in India are investing 5.5 times more ad spend in these closed ecosystems. In contrast, the open internet, which captures 52 per cent of consumer time, receives only 15 per cent of the nation's ad budgets. 

Siddharth Dabhade, Global Commercial Board Member and Managing Director, MiQ India, believes that the growing power of programmatic advertising on the open internet allows marketers to promote their brands across a wide range of ad inventory sources with more flexibility in terms of creative ad formats and better cost efficiency.

 “As advertisers explore opportunities across the open internet, Connected TV can be an effective channel to reach and influence premium consumers on a big screen. In addition to the incremental reach on CTV, advertisers also get higher brand recall and uplift on CTV. CTV offers better media planning, advanced audience targeting, omnichannel activation, and measurement, which were not possible on linear TV,” he says.

“Marketers who focus solely on walled gardens because of their size will only capture one dimension of consumer behaviour. As such, they are missing out on other touchpoints on the open internet,” says Gill, adding that recent research shows that brands advertising on OTT/CTV are 33 per cent more likely to be perceived as premium, compared to video ads on walled gardens. Consumers are also 17 per cent more likely to purchase products advertised on news/websites, compared to ads on social media.