Brands to splurge on Connected TV advertising this festive season

E-commerce, Lifestyle, Auto, FMCG, BFSI, and Ed-tech brands are likely to be big spenders on Connected TVs this festive season. 

The majority of ad spend, however, is most likely to flow from TV advertising. 

As per experts, brands are willing to shell out a heavy premium to be on connected TVs as they are able to do precision targeting via this medium. 

Shekhar Banerjee

Shekhar Banerjee, Chief Client Officer and Office Head – West, Wavemaker India, said, “CTV is a priority channel for us and our clients. To facilitate best-in-class planning and access we use our proprietary CTV planning product at GroupM, which is called Finecast. This gives our client a disproportionate planning advantage in a very rapidly growing platform.”

Share of CTV is going to come out of TV spends as it brings in the best of both worlds, the precision of digital and big screen of the TV, he added.

Rajiv Dubey

There is a separate cohort of CTV households that have recently grown, which has become significant to the brands, as per Rajiv Dubey, Head - Media - Dabur India. 

According to him, the targeting of the audience becomes much simpler on CTVs since there are clear numbers available and this is the reason why brands are mostly focusing their campaigns on connected TVs lately.

“Since last year, we as a brand are also focussing mostly on sharp targeting audiences on CTVs seeing its exponential growth,” he added.

Krishnarao Buddha

According to Krishnarao Buddha, Senior Category Head - Marketing at Parle Products, CTV advertising is in a very good zone, there is a great opportunity for the brands here. This phenomenon is slowly and steadily percolating down from metros to mega metros to Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities. The 5G rollout in the next couple of months is further going to propel the CTV overall audience.

He further said that there is a higher rate of conversion through CTV advertising which is one of the interesting offerings the medium provides. The advertisers on CTVs can target certain audiences with a household sync without having any privacy-related concerns.

Manika Juneja

Manika Juneja, Executive Vice-President – Operations, WATConsult, believes that with the digital transformation that the country is going through, newer means of advertising will shape up. Television sets are never going to get out of Indian households and the internet is a necessity, hence, CTV will grow in the upcoming years.

CTV ads command a premium of 1.5x - 2x due to precision targeting options available and immersive experience, as per Juneja, which proves that brands would come up with their premium products to target their audience on CTVs more. 

Likewise, Dabur, one of the major FMCG companies, is also focussing on CTV more this festive season. Dubey of Dabur highlighted that they are mostly putting out their premium product packs for their audience for connected TV advertising. He said, “We don’t generally put out a Rs 10 pack product for advertisement on CTVs, rather we put ads of a premium pack of Dabur Honey or a premium pack of Dabur Amla Gold Hair Oil, and so on, to target the affluent consumers." 

Moreover, the average viewership brands garner from advertising on CTVs is quite high. The VTRs are upwards of 85-90% for any brand advertising on the CTVs, as per Juneja.

According to experts, the ad rates will be higher on CTVs this festive season as compared to the regular rates but it will all depend on how the brands want to target the audience. The ad rates keep increasing based on targeting and the watch duration of the audience, said Dubey. 

However, as per Buddha, currently, there is no metric available on CTVs, unlike television where the Cost Per Rating Point (CPRP) is available to at least have a yardstick to freeze upon a rate, hence, everyone comes with a different ad rate and there is no standard as such. In the absence of the metrics, it is very subjective and is a pain area that needs to be addressed, as per him.

As per reports, the share of smart TVs in overall TV shipments in India reached 84% in 2021, compared to 67% in 2020. There had been a significant growth noticed in CTVs in the west and now an upsurge curve is seen in India as well, with over 12 million monthly active CTV users in the country.

According to predictions, this number is expected to hit 40 million by 2025, indicating a record-high level of CTV usage in India. Hence, this is what the brands and advertisers are eyeing on.

Juneja believes that CTV as a platform offers the benefit of TV advertising with a level of control, which is a primary reason for brands to explore CTV advertising. 

The digital savvy influential audience presence, screen impact, immersive experience, and digital measurement with precision and accuracy are some of the reasons which make it compelling for the brands, she further noted.

How can brands ensure maximised ROI from advertising on CTVs?

CTV offers an opportunity for brands to build a full-funnel marketing strategy and reach a vast pool of influential consumers who are also frequent buyers, as per experts. Moreover, the data points collected via CTV advertising can be used across platforms for efficient communication, thus, creating more impact and ROI.

According to Buddha, since CTVs do not have a proper metric, the ROI measurement is slightly challenging but the brands which are experimenting with CTV need to do activities exclusively on it to gauge the maximum ROI.

This is something that Juneja also believes, she said, “Marketers can choose the household that they want to talk to with the targeting options available via CTV. The primary KPIs that the brand should target should be a lift in awareness, consideration, and intent. However, the platform charges a premium but delivers good ROI to the brand that wants to cater to a niche consumer cohort.”

While on the other hand, Dubey trusts that high ROIs can be had based on the type of content that the brands want to focus on. 

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