By: Nicole Malitz
Recently at Advertising Week New York, I hosted a fireside chat with advertising experts, including Peacock’s Jules Stachman, VP, Device Partner Marketing; Magnite’s Ryan Kenney, SVP, Streaming Platform; and Horizon Media’s Alexander Stone, SVP, Advanced Video & Agency Partnerships, where we discussed the ever-evolving CTV ecosystem and the concept of gateway ads.
As anyone in the advertising industry can attest, the CTV landscape is in a constant state of flux. Being deeply immersed in the space, I can say it’s more crowded than ever. Why? We’re now experiencing an oversaturation of supply in CTV advertising.
During the Advertising Week panel, we all agreed that because of this oversaturation of supply, we are in a buyers’ market. Buyers have the ability to choose exactly what they want – targeting a certain rating or genre.
That said, given this oversaturation and the sheer amount of AVOD and SVOD platforms on the market, it’s increasingly challenging to reach your audience. Due to the wealth of choice, consumers have to dig deeper to find the content they want and therefore advertisers may be missing out on their target audiences. Because of this, if brands and advertisers want to show up in a more meaningful way, they’ll need to look elsewhere – like the TV home page.
How Home Page Ads are a Gateway Advertisement
As a consumer, I’ve never thought about home page advertisements serving as a gateway advertisement. But in this role, I’ve come to realize that it is. A home page ad is front and center of the smart TV when you turn it on. As Jules aptly said, connected TV home screens are the “modern lead-in for televisions.”
Home screens are where consumers go for content discovery and are increasingly becoming the most important point in the CTV experience. For advertisers, with home page ads it doesn’t matter whether it is endemic or non-endemic content. These ads make it helpful to consumers to find what they’re looking for and are a way in for personalization.
Although programmatic data is a fundamental part to the CTV advertising experience, to optimize targeting, enhanced personalization and measure effectiveness, those signals are not yet utilized in home page ads but could be in the future. For both the advertiser and consumer, it is important to pass relevant content signals in the bid stream. So, if an athletic shoe company wants to target those watching sports content, they could look for these details being passed in the bid stream.
The home page provides an opportunity to drive traffic and connect people with the right content, which will resonate with them. As more brands leverage home page advertising content, it’s crucial to create a balance with personalization. When executed well, creative advertising will drive success.
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