LONDON, UK — What the ad gods give with one hand they can take away with another.
Case in point – new ad offerings from SVOD and AVOD TV providers can restore ad reach that was lost to subscription video.
But Simon Thomas, Global Director, Audiences Research, GroupM, says that is creating a risk of exposing viewers to duplicate ads.
Reduced reach
Thomas is a 45-year ad industry veteran, with stints at Starcom, MEC and others.
Now one of the execs leading audience research and investment decisions at the world’s biggest-spending agency, he sees both promise and pitfall int he new ad offerings.
“One of the main issues we have in the market is the declining linear viewing, which means that we don’t have the reach that in previous years, we could accumulate,” he told me during Beet.TV’s London summit in December.
The likes of Netflix and Disney+ ad-supported tiers could help.
“We’re getting a replacement of that missing reach,” Thomas says.
Creative wear-out
But GroupM’s Thomas says ongoing “fragmentation” across the services means a problem: “The biggest issue we’ve got is we cannot manage the frequency.”
By “frequency”, Thomas means the number of times a particular ad is shown to a particular viewer or user. Targeting efficiency may make it more likely that a viewer should see a relevant ad – but consumer tolerance may also mitigate against excess exposures, what Thomas calls “the bête noire of the digital platforms”.
“That high frequency leads to, well, creative wear-out, which we’ve known about for many, many years, but it also adds to that issue of advertising bombardment, advertising intervention, et cetera, ruining what, what is or should be a pleasant viewing experience.”
You’re watching “Looking Ahead: TV in Europe 2025” a Beet.TV Leadership Summit presented by Magnite & Publica, in partnership with egta. All videos were filmed on-site at our event at London’s Soho Hotel. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
