Forward ’23: Always On — 7 key takeaways advertisers should know

Earlier this month, The Trade Desk hosted a first-of-its-kind event where industry leaders from brands, agencies, and major TV networks discussed developments that can enable a more flexible, data-driven, and measurable approach to TV buying. 

Here are some key highlights.

1. Real-time decision-making is the future of TV advertising.
   
   Data-driven, biddable Connected TV (CTV) buying is where marketers are having the most success. And making decisions in real time based on available supply and consumer data is key to delivering successful campaigns.
    
2. It is crucial to challenge media partners to evolve with advertisers’ needs.
   
   As many advertisers require more flexibility and aspire to bring data and identity into the equation, they need to challenge media partners to build flexibility and fluidity into their deals.
    
3. Content is king — wherever the desired content is, consumers will follow.
   
   Advertisers should focus less on how to buy and more on reaching viewers where they are. By adopting an audience-first approach and allowing streaming and linear TV to complement each other, buyers can work toward expanding their reach and achieving greater efficiency.
    
4. Cheaper reach doesn’t translate into business outcomes.
   
   Advertisers can prioritize lower costs per mille (CPMs) and cheaper scale and still serve millions of impressions, but ad effectiveness hinges on more than reach alone.
   
   To build a successful media plan, advertisers should focus on the value gained by being able to control reach and frequency — rather than the cost — and consider moving to an addressable-first demand-side platform (DSP) to gain more control.
   
   True effectiveness is defined by revenue realized as a direct result of media. So if you’re not driving top-line revenue, are you really bringing value to your business?
    
5. Identity is the currency of omnichannel advertising across CTV and beyond.
   
   An authenticated, email-based foundation of identity and addressability will power the future of advertising, and is already becoming ubiquitous on CTV. Advertisers need to prioritize partners that enable seamless onboarding and activation of their first-party data and allow for advanced targeting across all channels.
   
   Many marketers want to bring on their first-party data, match it against an identity currency, and deliver impressions inside of a highly premium environment. This identity framework enables omnichannel frequency management across publishers, which can help to improve the consumer experience while allowing you to focus spend on expanding reach to net-new viewers. That’s why it’s important to leverage an interoperable identity framework like Unified ID 2.0 (UID2).
    
6. Programmatic advertising and premium content can coexist seamlessly.
   
   In fact, programmatic gives advertisers access to a large addressable universe of premium content with simplicity and scale, democratizing access for small- and medium-sized businesses and performance marketers.
    
7. Upfronts will be transformed into a forward market that is always on, allowing for data-driven digital advertising.
   
   A forward-market transaction environment can offer both advertisers and content owners the best of digital and traditional upfronts. You’ll be able to use forward contracts to make spend commitments in advance, creating large amounts of guaranteed demand for publishers and content owners. This will be more effective than traditional spray-and-pray techniques used in the past.

It’s clear coming out of the event that CTV is an essential part of any television media buying strategy, and programmatic advertising has become the central point of that discussion.

Weren’t able to join? Don’t worry, you can still catch thought leaders from The Trade Desk, Disney, Fox, L’Oréal, and more in the recordings.

Interested in learning more about how agencies and brands are approaching the 2023 to 2024 upfronts in a more data-driven way? Download our Future of TV Report.