How Brands are Scaling Success in Connected TV: Advertising Week NY Day 2

Day 2 at Advertising Week NY started off a little slower than the frenzy that was only one day earlier, but by around 10am the crowds showed up and sessions were packed all day. Long lines were a theme, but it’s understandable with exceptional speakers like Serena Williams and leading brand marketers from Chipotle, Nissan, Reckitt Benckiser and Burger King taking the stage.

Innovid’s series The Future of TV is Now continued to focus on the voice of our customer – brand marketers – and how they are embracing connected TV. Moderated by WSJ’s Alex Bruell, this panel featured Nissan’s VP Marketing Allyson Witherspoon and Reckitt Benckiser’s (RB) Global Health Category Lead Laurent Faracci alongside Innovid’s President Beth-Ann Eason to answer questions around how brands are thinking about TV differently, how to measure it, and where the money is coming from to fund these efforts.

Where’s the money?

It’s been stated many times during the week and today was no different – viewership is declining on linear TV so how are brands finding their audiences? And where are the budgets coming from? When asked about the shift in viewership from linear to streaming, Nissan’s Witherspoon revealed that budgets were being reallocated from linear TV and display advertising into connected TV. Stating that while Nissan is finally seeing the upfronts evolve to include more technology and addressable audiences, it’s still been a manual process to reach the right customers for the auto brand. Witherspoon feels that this will shift over time, but the transition is likely still a few years out. Nissan believes in an audience buying model that will ultimately drive more effectiveness, and that TV will move towards audience-based buying rather than programming buys. For now, programming is still the law of the land.

Dynamic Creative = Relevance

With all this talk about addressable advertising, the question arose about scaling creative to dynamically deliver the right message, to the right person, at the right time. RB’s Laurent Faracci said it best, “DCO [dynamic creative optimization] is just relevance. With relevance comes effectiveness – that’s what this is.”

The Connected Living Room

Consumers are clearly tuning in to streaming (ad-supported) content and the numbers prove it. Innovid is seeing over 30% of ads delivered to the TV screen. With only 3% of media being spent here, there is a huge opportunity to take advantage of the best screen in the house to tell better stories, with relevant messaging, and to access the data to inform business outcomes. To see examples of how ad experiences are changing and how brands can drive more engagement, Innovid brought the interactive living room to life showcasing award-winning creative examples on the Advertising Week NY floor.

The Future of TV is Now series continues tomorrow at 10:30AM on the Story Crafters Stage with heavy hitters Sir Martin Sorrell from S4 Capital and General Motors’ Global CMO Deborah Wahl for Rethinking TV: Driving Growth, Relationships, and Experiences Through Data.