As more options emerge for digital advertising on advanced TV platforms, an increasing amount of advertising spending goes toward options such as programmatic digital advertising, OTT ads and attachable linear programming.

With that said, it’s important to understand how ad buyers really perceive advanced television opportunities. By examining how other ad buyers view advanced TV platforms you can gain some valuable insight into the opportunities that these platforms present.

Advanced TV Advertising Is Important

One thing that most ad buyers can agree on is that advanced TV platforms are important.

Nearly eight in 10 advertisers have reported using at least one advanced TV platform for advertising, and projections hold that its importance will continue to grow over time. Even those who are not completely sold on the idea of advanced TV hold a moderately positive outlook on the platforms moving into the future; this outlook becomes even more positive when projecting out advances into the next five years or beyond.

Advanced TV Isn’t Essential… Yet

Despite the generally positive outlook that advanced television options have among ad buyers, the majority don’t consider it to actually be an essential platform to penetrate with ads.

The number who don’t consider advanced TV an essential part of an advertising budget is dwindling with each passing year, however. While less than 20 percent of advertisers considered it “Very Important” when surveyed in 2015, that number has grown substantially in the years since. Those who are hesitant to embrace advanced TV advertising tend to be part of larger companies or represent larger brands; small advertisers were much quicker to embrace the trend as they felt it provided a more equal playing field and an easier way to make their voice (and the voice of the brands they represent) heard.

Cord-Cutting Trends Will Continue

As more consumers cut the cord and move away from traditional television content, the demand for advanced television options is increasing significantly.

This demand serves as a driver for advanced TV ad growth as even those ad buyers who are hesitant know that you place ads where the viewers are. Marketers and agencies have been quicker to shift with the cord-cutting trend than in-house ad buyers who tend to make heavy use of traditional television ads; this is reflective both of the greater amount of flexibility that smaller marketers have and the resistance to change that some large brands display.

As the cord-cutting trend continues, however, even large national and international brands are making the transition to advanced TV options.

Hottest Advanced TV Types

In general, the most popular options for advanced TV ad buying are programmatic advertising and addressable targeting.

These two ad types are the closest to “traditional” ads, especially addressable targeting which can be used with some set-top boxes to target advertising in otherwise traditional television content. Programmatic advertising in particular is popular with OTT and connected TV content as it allows ad buyers to target specific types of users instead of targeting broader demographics.

Among the advanced TV options available, interactive television advertising sees the least enthusiasm from ad buyers who are unsure of how much viewers will actually want to interact with the programming.

Overall Perceptions

In the end, advanced TV advertising is seen as an important part of advertising spending even if it isn’t fully considered essential by all buyers.

Even those who don’t consider it essential now admit that advanced TV advertising will become essential within the next few years. As such, it is important to follow the trend and take advantage of the targeting and reach options that advanced TV offers. It should still be balanced with more traditional linear television campaigns, with advanced TV providing platforms to better achieve performance goals while linear TV offers a platform that is perfect for brand awareness and initial product contact.