LOS ANGELES — The growing audience for video on connected devices like smart TVs and mobile phones is pushing advertisers to adapt their media strategies. Marketers are more receptive to innovation than they had been as recently as a few years ago as viewers spend more time watching connected TV (CTV).
“As the world of connected TV has changed so much, the expectations and needs of brands have changed a lot,” Fred Godfrey, co-founder and chief executive of media and technology company Origin, said in this interview with Justin Lebben, co-founder and director of Mediatel Events, at Beet.TV’s Beet Retreat. “It’s not just about delivering the campaign. It’s now actually about wanting to see results.”
Disrupting 70-Year Methods
Godfrey coined the term “creative agility” to describe how brands need to re-think strategies that were successful during the first 70 years of broadcast television. Brands need to mindful of the value exchange that occurs when they ask consumers for their attention and personal information.
“Creative agility is something that came out of our obsession to fulfill our mission, which is to enrage the status quo,” Godfrey said. “We’re in this universe of increasingly constant distraction. Having someone’s attention on TV warrants actually earning it.”
He said ad personalization is frequently confused with the idea of ad relevance. For example, a consumer may be in the market for a new car, but that doesn’t mean the ads they consider relevant are necessarily personalized.
“Relevance and personalization do not belong together – and the industry has synonymized it. That’s a big mistake,” Godfrey said.
Personalization can pertain to other characteristics of an audience, such as geographic location or household income. Generalized messaging can be customized while avoiding an invasiveness that consumers find unsettling.
“It’s not personalization down to a creepy level,” Godfrey said. “It’s personalization in conjunction with relevance.”
‘Perfect Storm’ for CTV
The audience for CTV has reached a critical mass that makes it more efficient for many advertisers, which also have more ways to harness first- and third-party data to improve their targeting. Marketers have become more comfortable with the idea of committing more media dollars to CTV, Godfrey said.
“At the moment, we’re seeing a disproportional growth in viewership over ad spend,” he said. “One of the biggest reasons for that is because a lot of people are still yet to understand the true power and potential of connected TV – and that is beginning to pick up.”
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