Think brand, not conversions, when advertising on CTV: Frodoh founder

New Delhi: In the latest This Year Next Year report by GroupM, Connected TV (CTV) is estimated to exceed 65 million households in 2025. Being a number substantial enough to not be ignored, advertisers are flocking to this new medium to reach consumers. However, advertisers need to treat CTV as a powerful storyteller rather than a pushy salesman. 

In a conversation with BestMediaInfo.com, Russhabh R Thakkar, founder of AdTech firm Frodoh, remarked that TV is a platform for brand building and not something to be used for performance-centric marketing efforts. 

With the rise of OTT content consumption, there are over 200 FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) channels streaming on the CTV ecosystem. This has, consequently, boosted the ad-supported content and the scale of CTV advertising, especially live sports, which is the crème de choice for brands. But CTV is a canvas fostering strokes of brand recall, rather than a machine churning leads. 

The depth of CTV lies in understanding its unique rhythm. Thakkar expounded on the three levels of the marketing funnel—awareness, consideration, and conversion. TV, which transformed from being monikered as an ‘idiot box’ to being hailed as ‘smart,’ is the player that is most efficient in the top part of the funnel. According to Thakkar, fitting it into the last funnel is counterintuitive.

Thakkar, along with his team at Frodoh, designed the first-ever CTV campaign in India in collaboration with the automaker Jeep and Starcom in 2024. 

It is crucial to focus on the inherent nature of television viewing, Thakkar stated. “It is primarily a leisure activity centred around content consumption. The act of shopping or purchasing is not naturally aligned with this environment. Television's strength lies in building brand recall and fostering widespread awareness. It excels at introducing brands and concepts to a broad audience. 

However, it is not designed to directly facilitate the final purchase decision. The consideration and conversion stages require marketing tactics and channels better suited to driving immediate action,” he said.

If that is the case, then what solutions can brands rely on when advertising on CTV?

Tackling this question, Thakkar brought cross-engagement into the picture. Cross-engagement is the solution that advertisers can have in their toolbox to carve out a successful campaign. Cross-engagement in CTV refers to the practice of using large-screen advertising to engage views across multiple devices - phones, tablets - and channels. 

One can argue that interactive ads are well-equipped to carry CTV to the conversion stage of the funnel. But, according to Thakkar, interactive ads do not guarantee lead generation but can be a supplement to the cross-engagement factor.

This supplement to conversion can also be applied to the challenges of measurement on CTV, the big worry that is lingering across the industry. “Measurement is a challenge that everyone in the industry is facing,” said Thakkar. Unless there is a cross-measurement tool that can help and support the industry to tackle this challenge, cross-device engagement is the only aid, according to Thakkar.

Explaining the matter, Thakkar said, “Since the rise of CTV, advertisers face a significant challenge in measuring campaign effectiveness across multiple devices. Our approach is to encourage integrated CTV and mobile campaigns, enabling measurement of how CTV exposure influences user engagement with the brand on mobile devices.”

This is also reflected in GroupM’s TYNY report, where the agency writes, “Measurement continues to be one of the biggest barriers in the total TV planning approach, with no industry-wide solution for unified measurement between linear and TV in sight. A dual measurement approach remains the best solution to explore.” 

Frodoh addresses the measurement channel in other ways as well. 

The ad tech firm also relies heavily on Brand Lift Studies. These survey-like tools come in handy when educating clients about the scopes of advertising on CTV. 

Beyond the brand lift studies, cross-device targeting within the same household is employed to amplify campaign reach and recall. After an ad is served on CTV, the same household can be targeted on mobile and tablet devices, offering a cost-effective way to reinforce messaging and control frequency.