Brands and broadcasters press play on video personalisation ahead of advanced TV in Asia
With advanced TV still in its nascent stage, despite being seen as the future of TV advertising, brands and broadcasters are looking at greater personalization around the digital video to pave the way.
According to Innovid’s 2018 Global Video Benchmarks, some 28% of impressions were on connected TV (CTV), compared with 17% the year before. It shows a decent increase but it’s still a small percentage in many markets globally as the technology and investment are at early stages for many.
Henry Schenker, vice president for APAC at Innovid, said that a lot of the data for advanced TV was US-centric at present and that many markets in APAC had some way to go yet.
“CTV and over-the-top (OTT) is so clearly the future but I am cognisant of pushing this message because a lot of the data so far is all about the US. Where we have seen a lot of progress across Asia is personalized interactive video.”
The report also shows that brands are buying into more dynamic forms of digital advertising, as personalization becomes more popular. The report found a 79% increase in data-driven dynamic video over the past year.
This may be because the results showing to be positive. In New Zealand, a project between Innovid, TVNZ and Vodafone found that personalized video drove a 25x higher click-through rate, a 22x higher engagement rate and a 10% lift in video completion rate.
The video campaign included the ability to use a person’s name within the ads, as well as the TV show they were watching at the time. In total, the campaign showed over 9,700 people the personalized ads.
Louis Niven, the general manager for online at TVNZ, says, “The task was to drive brand consideration and show that Vodafone brings NZ’ers great experiences. The idea we developed was to surprise and delight OnDemand users and enhance their viewing experience by bringing them premium content ‘uninterrupted’ through a personalized experience.”
He adds that, while there’s a sensitivity to using data, the way the personalization was used meant people didn’t have any issues with it. “We know the value exchange for OnDemand users is strong. When we can tailor and personalize this message while giving them an uninterrupted ad-free experience, it brings this to a whole new level.”
Likewise, Schenker believes that executions such as this show people the value of relevant advertising in order to help fund the content they want to watch. “In terms of data, it is about how do you use it in a smart and non-obtrusive way? It’s our mission to create a better experience for users in the reality an ad-supported internet is a good thing.
"We knew that for this execution, users were unlikely to find it intrusive. It is a fine line but we have the data to customize that ad and the creative," he adds.
While this campaign wasn’t served against CTV, Niven says that it’s invested in the ability to do so across future campaigns. “This execution did not run on CTV, however with the accelerated growth in TVNZ OnDemand audiences, and the exponential growth of streams being delivered through a Connected TV (+183% YOY March 2018 versus 2019) TVNZ now offer personalization and dynamic video solutions across all devices; desktop, mobile and connected TVs.”
While personalization on ads on TVs may be something future-facing for many brands and broadcasters still at this stage, it’s something that many are looking forward to tuning into.
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