SAN JUAN, PR — After a few years in which many in the industry feared subscription media platforms would diminish the size of the ad hole, the sun is shining on ad-funded content again.
The emergence of new, ad-supported video services, coupled with economic pressure on consumers, could conspire to drive further opportunity in ad-funded connected TV.
In this video interview with Beet.TV at Beet Retreat in Puerto Rico, Tony Marlow, Chief Marketing Officer, LG Ad Solutions, says that sets up a perfect canvas for TV’s next act.
The second shift
Marlow says early-pandemic adoption of subscription VOD (sVOD) services typified a first “big shift” in the TV industry. But he says the medium has moved on to a second such shift.
“In this second phase, we’re observing people really starting to drift away from subscription services and pretty rapidly adopt FAST – Free Ad Supported streaming Television,” Marlow says.
“We’re hearing a lot of feedback that, as there are increasing amounts of fear, of potential economic headwinds, the household’s proclivity to want to pay for yet another subscription service is rapidly declining. People still want quality content. They just don’t want an additional fee for it.”
LG’s capabilities
LG Ad Solutions is the division of the electronics maker that makes its smart TV offering available to advertisers.
LG Solutions aims to give marketers more insights with its automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, which helps to track the programming and commercials that appear on its models of connected TVs (CTVs).
Through its Guaranteed Outcomes program, it pledged that every campaign bought and delivered either via on-TV native ads or CTV video will hit stated KPIs.
With 70% of viewers preferring ad-supported models, Tony Marlow and Matt Britton talk on the latest #thespeedofculture podcast about the opportunity for advertisers to make meaningful connections with consumers.#Adweek #CES2023 #advertising #streaminghttps://t.co/MkwvNU8nsM
— LG Ad Solutions (@LG_Ad_Solutions) February 16, 2023
Connected canvas
Marlow thinks business necessity in the current climate is pushing more advertisers to look beyond branding, for outcomes.
But he says those two, historically distinct goals are no longer so disconnected.
“Right now, every marketer is a performance marketer,” Marlow says. “I think the good news is that, with the media available to us right now, particularly within connected television … marketers now have the opportunity to be performance storytellers.
“I think the marketer of yesterday really had to choose a lane. You were either a brand marketer or you were a performance marketer. Now we have this rich canvas of sight-sound-motion with enhanced ad units, whether they’re natively baked into the UI, whether there’s some sort of enhanced ad format has QR codes or shoppable features.
“We now are providing the ability for marketers to both make the connection with their audiences that they want on the branding level, but also measure and drive performance.”
You’re watching coverage of Beet Retreat San Juan 2023, presented by LiveRamp, Madhive, Magnite, Paramount, T-Mobile Advertising Solutions and VideoAmp. For more videos from the Beet Retreat, please visit this page.
