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What to Expect This Year in the World of TV Advertising

tv advertising

The world of advertising and TV has been changing rapidly over the last couple of years with an increase in technology solutions, movement of brand dollars, and how advertisers are addressing the medium. Writing exclusively for ExchangeWire, Walt Horstman (pictured below), ‎SVP/GM advanced media and advertising, TiVo, talks about the developments across TV advertising and what the industry has to look forward to.

We're expecting to see industry-wide consolidation of some trends that have dominated TV advertising in the past few years and other trends that are just starting to heat up. Smarter use of linear TV and cross-platform data will get us closer to a comprehensive cross-channel attribution model and begin to unify us across advertising mediums. A renewed focus on content personalisation and customer experience will also lead to stronger viewership numbers and audience loyalty – something both advertisers and TV executives are excited about and looking forward to. Media fragmentation isn't going anywhere, but we're building the tools needed to meet the market.

Beyond these developments though, there are more pointed expectations that advertisers and marketers can expect from the world of TV advertising, some of which include:

Smarter, more effective use of linear TV data

In a media environment more recently defined by the diversity of platforms and myriad ways to consume content, measurement challenges have forced TV executives to reevaluate the existing standards. They have begun to recognise the value of linear 1:1 TV data as the single common denominator that can integrate all measurements in a comprehensive cross-channel attribution model. Because of that, this year we will see further consolidation of this trend.

Recommendation carrousels make it to the networks

In an effort to keep up with OTT providers like Netflix and Hulu, TV networks will invest in their own recommendation and search engines to respond to the growing consumer demands and expectations in the industry. Network providers will also need to invest in these capabilities if they want to remain competitive and increase viewership numbers at the same time.

Audience-based buying and selling to align with the expectations of digital

As the TV industry evolves to meet the demands of an ad-buying and selling ecosystem that has grown accustomed to the audience targeting and reporting capabilities of digital investments, this coming year will see increased collaboration among industry players to more closely align TV's audience-based buying and selling with the expectations brought on by digital. Expect more ad tech partnerships, and increased adoption and maturation of methodologies created in the digital ecosystem.

TiVo

Walt Horstman, ‎SVP/GM Advanced Media & Advertising, TiVo

Plug-and-play solutions that fit into every marketers' existing workflows

In the coming year, tech providers in the TV ad space will also have to redouble their efforts to ensure that their solutions easily integrate with the existing solutions used by marketers. In this regard, the modularising of SaaS tools and driving API connectivity to tech stacks across the ecosystem will only grow in the year ahead. Some marketers will have the resources to create and manage their tech stacks in-house, but some will not. Tech companies must be more flexible when trying to sell their end-to-end capabilities, and instead offer solutions that are flexible with their customers' existing tech stacks.

Increased automation and efficiency supersede 'programmatic'

Traditionally a slow and cumbersome process that could take up to weeks, accessing TV viewership data, matching data sets, and obtaining insights through analytics will see an increase in speed and efficiency in the year ahead. Tech providers, marketers, and TV providers will work together to reduce the latency between data gathering and insight generation, aiming to further align the TV ad ecosystem with the expectations set by digital.

Voice will continue to the throne of content search and entertainment experience control

With digital assistants like Siri and Alexa making impressive headway into the marketplace, voice control is quickly becoming a normal part of the everyday life of millions of Americans. TV networks and technology providers are, of course, already taking advantage of the ease of access and control that voice provides when it comes to content discovery and the control of entertainment systems. This year, we will see an even greater uptick in penetration and usage of this technology, but also the progressive evolution of voice recognition and control to adapt to the characteristics of natural speech. Voice commands and queries will evolve from simple commands to more complex voice interactions that mimic the ways in which people actually communicate.