Advanced television advertising for marketers

Advanced TV (ATV) advertising is a term that embodies a range of television advertising approaches using digital technologies and data to improve targeting, personalization, and measurement. It refers to all nontraditional broadcast TV that can be distributed across platforms and highlights the shift away from legacy television with data-informed marketing campaigns. Advanced TV can take several forms, including:

• Addressable TV: An internet-connected TV set that delivers targeted, personalized ads to specific households based on IP address-specific audience insights. 
• Connected TV (CTV): Refers to the ability to stream content on the internet through a built-in or secondary device. This can include smart TVs (built-in) or Apple TV, gaming consoles, and so forth (secondary devices).
• Over-the-top (OTT) TV: The service that delivers content via the internet instead of satellite or cable (i.e., Netflix, Hulu, etc.) to a connected TV device.
• Video on demand (VOD): Technology that allows viewers to access already-aired content via a cable or satellite app at their convenience. 
• Converged TV: Combines linear TV (traditional broadcasting on specific channels at set times) with digital streaming.

In the context of ATV advertising, it’s also important to distinguish between linear, OTT, and data-driven linear (DDL) advertising. 

• Linear advertising is the traditional method of TV advertising, where commercials are delivered during scheduled breaks in the broadcast. This is the standard ad format associated with linear TV broadcasting over cable or satellite. 
• OTT advertising, on the other hand, is associated with internet streaming services that bypass traditional cable or satellite. OTT allows for more flexibility in content delivery and consumption, often on a variety of devices. 
• Data-driven linear (DDL) advertising combines linear and OTT approaches, using data and technology for better targeting within the linear TV model. Advanced analytics help advertisers understand audience preferences, behaviors, and demographics for strategic ad placement in the linear TV schedule. This ensures broad broadcasting while tailoring and delivering relevant content to targeted viewer segments.

Advanced TV advertising is transforming the industry, providing a competitive advantage for brands looking to maximize their reach and impact in a constantly evolving media environment.

The emergence of advanced television is altering how content is consumed, surpassing the limitations of set broadcast schedules. Accessing video content across devices allows viewers to engage with their favorite shows anytime, anywhere. Advertisers benefit from this broader reach and can tap into a diverse audience beyond the conventional living room setting and rigid schedules.

Advanced TV uses highly effective targeting technologies to help advertisers identify and aggregate specific audiences at scale. Combining cross-device targeting and addressable technology ensures that ads are relevant and more meaningful to the audience, regardless of their location or device. The granular data obtained from these targeting efforts enables precise audience segmentation and tailored advertising strategies.

Advanced TV advertising can enhance premium inventory through precise targeting and sophisticated data analytics. This fosters engagement with features like audience choice and provides effective measurement for detailed insights into campaign performance. It also ensures improved relevance through data-driven insights and offers a unified view of the target audience across different devices and consumption habits. All of these enhancements collectively elevate the value of inventory, making it more appealing to advertisers through targeting accuracy, engagement opportunities, and comprehensive audience understanding.

One of the most advantageous aspects of advanced TV advertising is the capability for real-time measurement and optimization. Advertisers can assess campaign performance with unmatched precision and get deeper insights into audience engagement, impact, and reach. By taking a data-driven approach, advertisers can refine strategies on the fly for optimal results.

​​Advanced TV takes an omnichannel approach by seamlessly blending traditional first-screen TV experiences with interactivity and targeted analytics. The convergence of various platforms, including OTT, addressable TV, and multi-screen content delivery, provides advertisers with a holistic ecosystem to reach audiences across multiple touchpoints so they are receiving the same message wherever they are. This diversified approach enhances brand visibility and engagement.

In the advanced TV world, advertisers can enjoy a more cost-effective model that enables them to target their audience more efficiently and optimize their campaign spend. Measuring campaigns' effectiveness in real-time contributes to cost savings by ensuring resources are allocated to the most impactful strategies.

Advanced TV advertising delivers substantial value beyond traditional TV in several areas. Comparisons reveal superior performance, with advanced TV demonstrating a clickthrough rate (CTR) of 2.5%, which outpaces the 0.10% CTR on desktop media. Additionally, viewers spend a minute with brands on advanced TV, whereas viewers only spend 30 seconds with brands on traditional TV. Advanced TV delivers a lift by 4.9 in brand favorability and purchase intent over all other platforms, which showcases the effectiveness of advanced TV in engaging audiences, driving brand perception, and influencing purchase decisions.

​​Advanced TV advertising proves invaluable for any marketing campaigns requiring heightened engagement, optimization, and measurable results. Some noteworthy examples include:

• Automotive campaigns aiming for interactive experiences and warmer leads through features like 360-degree views
• Entertainment campaigns seeking younger audiences with interactive ad experiences
• Consumer packaged goods (CPG) campaigns utilizing advanced TV for execution verification and schedule validation

The versatile targeting, engagement, and measurement capabilities of advanced TV make it a strategic choice for advertisers across many verticals to enhance campaign effectiveness and meet audiences' changing expectations.

Today’s consumers are bombarded with data, and it’s becoming more challenging to engage them. As the economic climate evolves and consumers experience ad fatigue and diminished trust, hyper-targeting (tailoring highly targeted ads) is proving less effective and more costly as advertisers struggle to engage consumers. As a result, brands are reevaluating their budget allocation and considering a potential shift from hyper-targeting to reach extension in advanced TV advertising. This shift is driven by the recognition that broader reach, rather than narrow targeting, might be more impactful in capturing the attention of a diverse and increasingly discerning audience.

Successful brands have begun recognizing audiences as individuals seeking shared experiences, not mere data points. To thrive in this evolving TV ecosystem, it is essential to shift the strategy from the narrow delivery of precise messages to specific individuals at specific times towards a more comprehensive, holistic approach to delivering a cohesive message to a shared audience across diverse moments.

Instead of blindly following new trends, it’s crucial to undertake a strategic reassessment. This includes evaluating the intricacies of advanced TV measurement and currency, considering the role of third- and first-party data in improving addressability and comparing the costs and effectiveness of hyper-targeted ads versus the broader reach achievable by integrating advanced TV advertising into broadcast TV campaigns. 

As companies strive to engage their target audience effectively across various platforms and devices, the key to achieving this lies in resolving identities. Unifying offline and online digital identifiers through identity resolution is crucial because it allows advertisers to confidently identify and reach a single consumer across all channels, platforms, and devices. Advertisers are challenged by the intricacy of unifying offline identifiers like names and addresses with digital IDs such as CTV IDs, MAIDs, hashed emails, IP addresses, and cookieless IDs. The most important aspect is maintaining persistency in the face of signal loss from third party cookie deprecation, which is crucial for the success of advanced TV strategies.

Solutions like Experian's Consumer Sync powers identity resolution to help advertisers understand and connect with consumers more comprehensively. In the current environment, identity resolution is essential for advertisers wanting to orchestrate cohesive, personalized, and impactful campaigns.

This insightful case study explores our collaboration with a4 Advertising and delves into the transformative impact of data and identity solutions on advanced TV advertising. Learn how Experian’s data and identity products drove precision, personalization, and unparalleled targeting strategies in the connected TV (CTV) landscape for our client a4 Advertising.

Our data and identity products were able to:

• Power better advertising in the advanced TV ecosystem
• Enrich first-party data so advertisers can better understand their audiences across TV channels and create personalized messaging
• Help marketers find and reach their audiences by resolving digital IDs for precise targeting

Read the full case study here to learn more about how you can tap into our vast database and seamless resolution services to improve advanced TV advertising.

At Experian, we collaborate with a spectrum of leading ATV partners to reinforce our commitment to excellence in the TV ecosystem. Our partnerships include industry leaders like Roku, Samsung, Comcast, NBCUniversal, and more. These collaborations empower advertisers to navigate advanced TV advertising with cutting-edge technologies to deliver impactful, targeted campaigns.

Visit our advanced TV partnerships page to explore our relationships across the digital ecosystem. If you’re interested in becoming an Advanced TV partner, connect with us today!