Why big brands are surfing the new wave of digital advertising with Connected TV

Written by Melissa Yap

When Banana Republic announced their first foray into television after a 15 year absence, the digital advertising industry took note. After all, they had already ventured into the paid media and online video spaces to claim their stake in the retail world, but this wasn’t enough in an already tough climate for the Gap Inc. retail empire. This time, they explored Connected TV (CTV). Michael Jover, Head of Marketing, explained what prompted this move, “We have been doing a lot of work in terms of customer segmentation, as well as media mix modeling…through that analysis, we identified an opportunity to layer in TV to drive incremental reach and frequency and ultimately incrementality to our current mix.” 

We’ve seen a trend of direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands catching onto this new wave of marketing with Connected TV advertising – and using it to great effect, but bigger brands have been a bit slower to catch on. If a bigger brand already possesses equity and reach through their current marketing mix, then why rock the boat with something new? Not so fast. If there’s anything this year has taught us, it’s that one can never be too prepared, and brands cannot afford to be complacent. Here are a few reasons why Connected TV should be part of your marketing consideration set.

Test and Reset

One thing D2C brands know better than most, is the power of experimentation. It’s an integral part of building their brand since they aren’t as established in the market, and doing so helps them determine what resonates with their audience. Unbeknownst to many, Connected TV advertising is a great platform for testing – nor do brands need to have a huge production team up their sleeve to orchestrate multiple ads.

Connected TV ad platforms like SteelHouse have forged partnerships with video production houses, like QuickFrame. They can help you with any pre-production videos if you have a longer lead time, or quickly whip up stop-motion ads in a matter of days, using your existing assets.  It requires a shift in mindset, since Connected TV advertising can get mixed up with a traditional ‘big splash’ commercial on Linear TV. Think of those ads during Superbowl half time for example, where brands invest heavily in one single ad to create a bang. Brands reap the same benefits from CTV, but with more opportunity to play around with what works – and measure its impact.

Get to (Really) Know Your Customer’s Touchpoints

How do your customers navigate from device to device, or platform to platform in order to get to your brand? This is a question that will come up time and time again, and unlocking the answer is key to a competitive advantage. Other forms of digital marketing don’t quite cut it on their own, so adding Connected TV advertising is a way to connect all of the dots beyond your television screen.This is how it works with advertising platforms like SteelHouse: You’ll launch a CTV campaign on your television screen, after which a viewer may then check their phone or their laptop simultaneously (the majority of users are multitasking on different devices, since we all have shortening attention spans). They may decide not to visit your website and go about their day, or your ad might compel them to visit your website.

Our Performance TV solution will track your audience’s movements from the point that your CTV ad is viewed in full, up until the point of conversion. This data is fed into our Google Analytics integration which provides a big picture view of how your CTV ad is performing alongside your other digital marketing channels across all of your bottom line metrics. We value transparency and integrity above all else, so any CTV ad that is not fully viewed to completion will not count toward conversions, so that you will know exactly where, when and how a user is engaged with your brand.

Hype -Personalization on the Big Screen

Connected TV ads should be viewed only in one way – on your television screen. It should also be served to the right audience and network that are likely to engage with your brand. SteelHouse Performance TV enables personalization at every step of the way. We’ve paired up with leading data provider, Oracle Data Cloud, where you can access over 40,000 third party audiences.

Our Living Room Quality feature ensures your ads are served in a non-skippable format and only on the biggest screen in the house paired with a selection of 125+ top-tier networks vetted for their ability to drive performance. Thirdly, set up your campaign across other channels beyond Connected TV. We use a feature called Audience Extension for this, which serves related display ads on mobile and desktop once a user has viewed your CTV ad. We don’t call it an immersive ad experience for nothing! Advertisers can also flip the switch through retargeting, where using your existing audience base, you can remarket to them on Connected TV. 

The Icing on the Cake – Reporting

Reporting may be the ‘final step’ in a campaign, but to us it’s ever present and something that must be fine tuned even while your campaign is running. Television as an ad channel has never been known to accurately report and track what’s happening. However, for the first time ever, television is considered a direct-response channel thanks to Connected TV. Established brands can now have their cake and eat it too (meaning they can increase brand awareness while driving revenue and conversions), and launch a high-impact campaign which is entirely measurable.

We’ve housed our reporting interface on the same one that you’ll use to launch and target your campaigns. These can be accessed at any stage, and configured to suit your view. Think of it as modules on one screen that can be moved around, templatized, filtered for specific metrics (over 900+ of them!) and then downloaded as a neat report. The end goal? Connected TV is a performance marketing platform first, with the bonus of possessing the characteristics of any brand awareness campaign.

If you’d like to learn more about Connected TV, our blog is a great place to start. You can also sign up for our mailing list where we’ll send you industry news updates, monthly Q&A series and more.