FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 30th 2022

ConnnectedTV: Making Political Campaigns Work

This year, political ad spending on CTV is projected to hit $1.5 billion. That's much money, meaning political advertisers have higher stakes than ever. But CTV also presents significant opportunities for reaching voters. Here's what you need to know about CTV and political advertising.

Why? There are a few reasons. First, the number of Americans using CTV is on the rise. According to eMarketer, there are now 180 million CTV users in the US, up from 155 million in 2018. Plus, more and more households are cutting the cord and getting their TV content from streaming services like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video. And political advertisers are taking notice. Digital media programmatic advertising spend for the 2020 political elections was up nearly 300%, according to ad-tech company Centro. CTV devices grabbed a 19% share of political ad pay -- up from 5% in the 2018 midterm elections.

Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin are all hotspots for ad buying, so competition is high, and prices are skyrocketing. According to data from Basis Technologies, political advertisers increased their spending on CTV devices by 1500% in the first half of 2022 compared with the same period in 2020. Another CTV advertising forecast expects overall 2022 growth over 2020 to “only” be 109%, meaning that political advertising is heavily over-indexing on CTV.

CTV, or connected TV, refers to any TV connected to the internet. This includes set-top boxes like Roku and Apple TV, gaming consoles like Xbox and Playstation, and smart TVs. CTV allows viewers to watch content from various sources, including traditional linear TV, over-the-top (OTT) platforms like Hulu and Netflix, and digital platforms like YouTube.

Hulu is King of Political Ads

According to Centro's digital advertising platform data, Hulu captured nearly a quarter of all CTV spending across its hundreds of political campaign clients. This is compared to other prominent players in the space, like Facebook and YouTube, which only captured 10% and 5%, respectively. So, how did Hulu manage to take over the CTV advertising market for political campaigns? 

According to Brian Briscoe, Centro's chief revenue officer, one of the main reasons is that Hulu has invested heavily in direct sales. "Hulu has been the top vendor for direct sales for political campaigns in 2018 and 2020," he said. "Much of Centro's growth in the last cycle came from new digital TV players entering the market." 

In other words, Hulu has made it easy for political campaigns to buy ad space on its platform, and as more and more campaigns have started to move their advertising efforts online, Hulu has been there to capture that spending. This is in contrast to Facebook and YouTube, which have primarily relied on programmatic advertising—an automated way of buying ad space that is less transparent and can be more expensive. 

Hulu's focus on direct sales has also offered lower prices than its competitors. According to Briscoe, Hulu charges an average CPM (cost per thousand impressions) of $10 for political ads, while Facebook and YouTube charge closer to $20.

Targeting is Making it Rock.

CTV is necessary for political advertising because it allows campaigns to target specific demographics with highly tailored messages. For example, if a campaign wants to reach women ages 25-34 who live in swing states and have watched at least one political ad on CTV in the past month, they can do that. Traditional TV advertising makes it much harder to target such a specific group of people.

CTV provides political marketers with a powerful tool for reaching their target audience. Thanks to its ability to serve highly targeted ads, CTV allows campaigns to laser-focus their message and efficiently use their ad dollars. And with the bonus of tracking campaign analytics in real-time, CTV provides a level of transparency that is unrivaled by any other medium.

So what does this mean for political campaigns? 

For one thing, we can expect to see many more ads on connected TV platforms in the future. And because these platforms offer detailed audience insights, we can also expect to see more campaign messages targeted specifically to specific demographics. For example, we might see ads that target young voters with messages about student loan reform or ads that target older voters with messages about Social Security and Medicare.
 

But it's not just the quantity of ads that will increase; their quality will also go up. Thanks to the detailed audience insights that connected TV platforms offer, we can expect to see more ads that are genuinely relevant to viewers. This means that instead of seeing generic advertisements that could be shown to anyone, viewers will start seeing ads specifically targeted to them. That's a win-win for both marketers and viewers alike.

As I mentioned before, one of the benefits of connected TV platforms is the ability to gain detailed insights into your audience. This valuable data can inform future campaigns and make them even more effective than they would be without it. Armed with this information, we can expect to see more targeted and relevant campaign messages in the future. And since these messages will be better tailored to specific demographics, we can expect higher engagement rates and ROI from them.

How to use it Effectively

While it may be tempting to focus all of your GOTV efforts on people who have voted for your party in the past, it's important to remember that there are always expansion opportunities. By taking a holistic approach to audience targeting, you can reach new voters who may be skeptical of your candidate but open to hearing your message. This is especially important in today's political climate, where voters are becoming increasingly polarized and mistrustful of candidates outside their party.

With such a massive influx of money being pumped into CTV advertising, you would think that brands would be tripping over themselves to produce the highest quality video content possible. Surprisingly, that's not always the case. While some political advertisers might be tempted to repurpose vertical videos from social media for CTV, they should resist the urge to cut corners.

 Audiences expect professional videos on CTV, just as they would on traditional TV, and anything fewer risks rubbing them the wrong way. The shift to CTV should not incentivize campaigns to scale back on production.

 Instead, it’s an opportunity to stand out with creative messaging that speaks to the modern viewer, delivered at opportune times along their digital journey.

When Voters are Doubtful of Your Message

Persistent doubt about social media and online messages is a continuing theme that leads to distrust and polarization.

At the same time, repetitive broadcast messages can also introduce boredom, annoyance, and ad fatigue that make voters reluctant to go to the polls. As a result, advertisers must carefully navigate crowded channels to grab audience members’ attention while avoiding overexposure.

The answer lies in understanding your audience. With social media becoming increasingly saturated, it's more important to target those most likely to be receptive to it. That means finding the right tone of voice and using it to reach voters who may be skeptical of what they see online.

For example, studies have shown that younger voters are more likely to be swayed by emotional appeals, while older voters respond better to logical arguments. And while negative ads may turn some people off, they can also effectively motivate others to get out and vote. The key is to find the right balance for your audience.

Prioritize Premium Inventory

Premium inventory describes the most desirable advertising placements on streaming TV. These placements are typically limited in supply and thus command a higher price. But the benefits of securing premium inventory are well worth the cost. Here are just a few of the advantages:

Increased Reach: When you buy premium inventory, you're guaranteed that your ad will be placed in front of a large audience. This is because premium inventory is generally reserved for popular shows and networks. So, premium inventory is the way to go if your goal is to reach as many people as possible.

Improved Targeting: Besides increased reach, buying premium inventory allows you to target your audience better. That's because you can choose to place your ad on specific shows or networks that appeal to your target demographic. For example, buying premium inventory on a millennial-focused web like Vice would be wise if you're trying to reach millennials.

Higher Quality Traffic: Not all traffic is created equal. Just because someone sees your ad doesn't mean they're going to take action. But if someone visits your ad on a show or network they trust and respect, they're more likely to be interested in what you have to offer. Therefore, buying premium inventory can lead to higher quality traffic and more conversions.

 It is clear that CTV political advertising is a huge opportunity. What do you think? Is this something your business should be exploring? Start the Conversation on LinkedIn

 Q&A with Fred Godfrey
CEO, and Co-Founder of Origin Media
 

Fred is a twice acquired tech founder who has spent the last 5 years obsessing over the potential of the Connected TV space. After a storied career he joined E.W.Scripps in their strategic partnerships team and in 2018 he relocated to Seattle where co-founded Origin. With the company growing rapidly, he returned to NYC in 2021. Fred holds a Masters Degree in Moral Philosophy and is a keen distance runner, mountain climber and photographer in his spare time.

Who are you and what do you do? 

Origin is a creative technology company whose first-to-market CTV ad formats have reshaped the way advertisers engage and activate consumers in the living room. 
 

Fusing unique creative solutions with proprietary ad serving capabilities and direct distribution deals, Origin is engaged by agencies, brands, and programmatic platforms who want to elevate and amplify the effectiveness of their CTV campaigns.

Bluntly, what makes your CTV Advertising Solution better? 
Bluntly, our CTV ad formats are better because our solutions are the only ones out there that give advertisers the level of creative agility they need to make CTV the performance machine they need it to be.

What are some good case studies that prove that it works?

Two client case studies that immediately spring to mind are:
A campaign we ran over the summer for a travel brand where we used data fed to us by IBM Watson to create truly dynamic 15s 'native CTV ad extensions' that told viewers the day's weather forecast across the destination area immediately before they saw the client's ad. This use of our flagship solution, Slingshot, drove a 73% lift in 'intent to learn more' compared to the same ad that ran without the native ad extension.

A campaign we ran for a financial institution who had no ad creatives and the need to A/B test multiple storylines, taglines and CTA's in order to establish what resonated best with consumers at home. By engaging the Origin Ad Studio instead of a traditional creative agency they were able to run, track and measure attribution across no fewer than 6 different ad creatives simultaneously.

What is the future of CTV advertising in the next 24 months?
I'll answer this in 3 simple bullets:

- Spending will increase as more consumers make CTV their first choice for home entertainment.

- There will be a tectonic shift in expectations by brands when it comes to 'success', which in turn will lead to more solutions like ours being adopted and an acceleration in spend.

- CTV and what's left of traditional TV will become a single, unified line item in everyone's budgets, called 'TV'.

TheRundown
At least 10 News Stories you Must Know
(but don't have time to read!)

1.If you're in the online gambling business, you might want to take some notes from BetMGM. It seems they've found a way to keep their customers from reporting game glitches to regulators. The secret? Plying them with free bets, of course!

According to a lawsuit filed Wednesday, New York man Sam A. Antar has accused BetMGM of doing just that. Antar alleges that the online casino's blackjack and other games repeatedly disconnected from BetMGM's servers, often while he had favorable hands, which wiped out potential winnings. His winnings at times weren't available to him until he deposited more money into his account, further fueling his compulsive gambling that included more than $29 million in bets in nine months, the lawsuit said.

It's a genius plan, really. Why wouldn't Antar just report the bugs and collect his winnings like a normal person? Because by plying him with free bets, BetMGM was able to keep him gambling—and losing—for longer. And the longer he gambled, the less likely he was to report the bugs. It's a win-win for BetMGM!

Of course, this whole scheme falls apart if someone actually does report the bugs. But given that most people are as addicted to gambling as Antar is, that's unlikely to happen. So congratulations, BetMGM! You've found a way to keep your customers from being honest about your buggy software. We're sure your shareholders will be thrilled.

2. Trevor Noah announced that he is leaving The Daily Show during Thursday’s episode of the Comedy Central late-night show. He debuted as host on Sept. 28, 2015, following the departure of Jon Stewart. Noah, the youngest of the late-night hosts at just 38, explained that returning to stand-up after a two-year hiatus amid the pandemic led him to realize he wanted to continue exploring other aspects of his life. The story was first reported by Variety. “I’m not sure what the future holds, but what I do know is that I’m excited to go find out,” Noah said during his final episode. “Thank you for watching. I hope you had as much fun watching the show as I had making it. But most importantly, thank you for letting me in your homes every night. It has been an honor and a privilege." Stewart, who remains an executive producer on The Daily Show, released a statement after Noah’s announcement: “Trevor Noah brought a powerful and unique perspective to The Daily Show. He created a global conversation, informed citizens of the world and inspired people everywhere to look at things differently." Comedy Central president Doug Herzog also paid tribute to Noah in a statement: “It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with Trevor Noah over the past several years as he has cemented himself as one of the most talented and significant voices in comedy today."

3.Kathleen Schaub, an expert on modernizing marketing organizations, says that marketers must stop looking for a magic “predictable ROI” formula and embrace marketing’s complex realities. In her keynote address for The MarTech Conference’s second day, Schaub stated that “marketing gets its unpredictability from the tangled connectivity and interactions of people, customers, brands, competitors, influencers, governments. And those billions of interactions between these agents cause feedback loops, resulting in what the US Army War College called VUCA [which] stands for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.” Schaub went on to say that the only way to properly navigate these waters is by having a team of experts who are willing to constantly adapt to changes in the market.

4. Substack has been on a roll lately, and their latest acquisition is sure to turn some heads. They've just acquired Yem, a startup that helps writers build their email lists and paid subscriber bases. The company announced the purchase in passing among a list of other developments, but we all know that this is a pretty big deal. With Yem's help, Substack is going to be able to offer even more features and options for writers looking to grow their audiences. 

5.Digital Remedy, a leading digital media and technology company that offers Performance CTV solutions, recently announced that its proprietary performance CTV platform, Flip, is now widely available to e-commerce and retail advertisers. The new platform provides brands with granular insights into campaign performance, attribution and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). The integration of mobile location data with CTV ad impressions gives advertisers a more complete picture of how their campaigns are performing across various channels and devices. Flip is already proving to be a valuable tool for e-commerce and retail brands looking to improve their CTV ROI. With its ability to track campaign performance in near real-time, Flip is helping brands optimize their CTV strategies for maximum impact.

6. Google's recent push into visual and multi-media search is a wake-up call for marketers who have become too reliant on traditional text-based search. The rise of apps like TikTok and Reddit, which are heavy on visuals and multimedia, has highlighted the importance of these elements in the search landscape. Google's expansion is a response to this shift, and it should serve as a reminder to marketers that they need to be thinking about how to optimize their content for all types of search. From images and videos to voice search and beyond, there are a number of ways to make your content more visible in the new search landscape. So don't be caught sleeping when Google makes its next move.

7. Joining a building brand marketing trend, Sunglasses brand Quay has retooled its marketing strategy to be more “full funnel” rather than relying on performance marketing tactics. The shift followed iOS 14 (and Apple’s subsequent operating system updates) as the ability to track what was working and what wasn’t became that much harder. Prior to the changes, Quay was focused on driving short-term sales and relied heavily on paid search, influencer posts and other quick hits. Now, the brand is taking a more long-term view, with an emphasis on creating loyalty and repeat customers through more engaging content and experiences. As part of the new strategy, Quay has launched several new initiatives, including an ambassador program, a loyalty program and a series of targeted content pieces meant to educate and inspire potential customers. So far, the results have been promising, withQuay seeing a significant uptick in both web traffic and sales. Moving forward, the brand will continue to invest in its full-funnel approach in order to build deeper relationships with its customers.

8. BIMI is a new way for brands to show their logos in emails. The verification process is a bit of a pain, but it's worth it because it helps to prevent phishing attacks. Google, Yahoo Mail, and Fastmail have all implemented BIMI, and now 90% of the world's consumers can benefit from the protocol.Apple has also joined the club, so if you're an iPhone user, you can now enjoy the benefits of BIMI as well. authenticating email messages with DMARC and displaying their brand logos in emails. The logos must be validated with a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) from such a firm as Entrust. But the verification process is a bit of a pain. Nevertheless, it's worth it because it helps to prevent phishing attacks. 

9. This is a common misconception about TikTok's algorithm - that there is a best time to post in order to get more views. The truth is, no one really knows what the algorithm is up to because it is constantly changing. TikTok's AI picks up on content to push and optimize for based on what it has been programmed to learn. However, since the AI is constantly learning, the optimization is always changing. So, while there may be times when your content gets more views than usual, there is no guaranteed best time to post.  (Louie Bischoff / NRT Marketing Solutions)

10.  It's no secret that consumers are savvy when it comes to spotting greenwashing. In fact, according to TINT's State of User-Generated Content 2022 report, 78% of consumers can tell when brands are advertising to them. So, if you're going to practice sustainability, do it because you genuinely want to - not because it'll get you more "likes."

Sure, sustainability can be a great marketing tool, but only if you're actually committed to taking action. As Jessica Deyo, Editor at Retail Dive points out, "many brands have used [sustainability] as a marketing tool but failed to take any sort of true action, known to critics as greenwashing." So, before you start using sustainability as a way to boost your brand image, make sure you're prepared to put in the work. Otherwise, you might just end up with a reputation for being nothing more than a dishonest greenwasher.

11. Unio, a company focused on click-fraud prevention, has announced that it has closed $15 million in Series A funding. The goal of the company is to help digital marketers get the most from advertising budgets by identifying and excluding fake and invalid web traffic from different traffic acquisition channels. This is an important issue for many companies, as click-fraud can cost businesses millions of dollars each year. With this new round of funding, Unio will be able to expand its team and continue its fight against click-fraud.

The Watercooler
Impress your Co-Workers with these useless facts about marketing

5 Tips for a More Productive Morning
 

Start at 5:00—yesterday. 

One thing some people like to recommend is to come into the office and write a to-do list, to get yourself organized before you start your day. 

Establish a routine. 

Plan your day wisely. 

Go outside. 

Try not to rely on caffeine.

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