63% of broadcaster impressions were served via connected TV in 2018, study finds

Dive Brief:

Impressions on connected TV (CTV) campaigns last year made up 28% of total impressions on Innovid video campaigns — a 17% year-on-year increase from 2017 — according the company's Global Video Benchmarks report, which was shared with Marketing Dive. Among thousands of video campaigns analyzed over the course of 2018, 68% had some kind of CTV execution last year.
Advanced creative elements of CTV brought higher engagement than standard pre-roll and the potential for greater earned time and attention, with 71 additional seconds of time earned on broadcast content and more than six times the engagement lift experienced on pre-roll ads. Use of dynamic video, focusing on delivering more personalization via location, weather or first-party data, grew 79% in 2018, with the average campaign generating 12,000 unique versions and the largest more than 200,000.
Among broadcaster impressions, 63% were served via CTV channels in 2018. Additionally, 83% of all CTV campaigns were made up of broadcaster impressions. The number of videos shorter than 10 seconds increased from 5% in 2017 to 11% in 2018 as more impressions shifted to mobile.

Dive Insight:

Innovid's research is the latest to point to the rapid growth of CTV, data-driven personalized video and short-form mobile video content. The higher engagement with advanced creative and hyper-personalization revealed in the report is a noteworthy finding, as consumers are expecting more relevant and tailored messaging, but brands often fail to deliver on those fronts.

CTV and other advanced TV formats promise greater addressability, as well as the capability to target more specific audiences and plan and buy cross-screen. Advanced video is also more measurable. However, the space has become increasingly crowded as advertisers and media owners try to follow consumers' eyeballs, which could lead to an uptick in consolidation.

Like the Innovid report, other research has emphasized the high impressions that CTV campaigns can deliver when executed well. CTV ad impressions jumped 193% from Q4 2017 to Q4 2018 and accounted for 44% of impressions in Q4 2018, according to Extreme Reach data. Average time spent with CTV ads increased 35.3% year-on-year, from 17 seconds to 23 seconds.

The rise of CTV comes as more than half of advertisers are combining their digital video and linear TV strategies, a recent report by Comcast's FreeWheel division revealed. However, standardization remains an issue, which can make it harder to measure success.

Smart TV company Vizio and major media and tech companies, including Disney's Media Networks, AT&T's Xander and FreeWheel, earlier this month formed the consortium Project OAR (Open Addressable Ready). The group aims to help TV programmers and platforms deliver more relevant ad experiences and better monetize impressions.