A marketer’s CTV playbook for the 2023 Golden Quarter

By Ed Wale, VP Europe, LG Ad Solutions

As another Golden Quarter is upon us, marketers will once again be bracing for what is traditionally the busiest period of the year. With macro-economic factors causing consumers to tighten their belts during 2022’s Golden Quarter, some are reporting a brighter outlook this year for marketers to make up for lost time and sales.

That’s not to say these pressures have completely lifted. More than eight in 10 shoppers (84%) will be looking for brands offering discounts this year as the squeeze on consumer spending continues, and so brands will need to not only cut through, but be agile in their messaging if they are to maximize returns during this crucial period. This also means marketers need to look beyond simple targeting and instead reach consumers with ads that are personalized to their tastes, location and even the environment they are viewing them in.

Personalized ads deeply resonate with UK shoppers – over half (51%) stated they felt frustrated by non-personalized or relevant ads. Furthermore, personalization directly leads to increased sales, with UK consumers reporting they spend 15% more with brands that personalize ads.

For brands looking to reach consumers in a unique, impactful yet highly personalized way during this key shopping period, there is one channel that stands out: CTV.

Elevating CTV with personalization and granular data insights

TV as an advertising channel has always allowed for a level of personalization and targeting. The power of contextual relevance has long been used to reach target audiences in locations where they are expected to be found.

For instance, a male shaving brand may run an ad with a famous footballer using their product in between the first and second half of a game. Not only will this ensure they reach their intended audience, but will also add a personalized touch to reflect the surrounding content. Similarly, linear TV ads sometimes include local information – such as store locations for a certain part of the country.

However, these personalization attempts lack the granularity that online channels possess, while ad slots have to be bought months in advance via an insertion order. This leaves little room for flexibility.

CTV revolutionizes the personalization options available to marketers, thanks in part to the increased access to data it allows. The emergence of measurement technology such as automatic content recognition (ACR) has enabled marketers to gain deeper insights into their target audiences in a privacy secure fashion.

Content consumption of audiences can be measured across a range of devices and inputs to build a more complete picture of their interests, watching habits, location, and more. This enhanced addressability is at the core of personalization on CTV.

Creating an audience portrait through personalization on CTV

By utilizing ACR insights and combining with first-party data, brands can look to build a more complete picture of their audiences. In turn, they can then deliver relevant, personalized content across all CTV channels – not only those that are directly relevant.

Fans of the fantasy genre, for example, will not only stream their favorite fantasy shows – they may also decide to sit down and watch a holiday film over the Golden Quarter, for example. Marketers can continue to deliver custom creative that references their favorite shows, Game of Thrones for example, even if that viewer is currently streaming Elf. This ability to create a holistic yet highly targeted ad experience means not only that consumers receive personalized advertising, but also that spend is maximized.

Interactive ads can be a further way to reach audiences with personalized messaging. These help bring the screen to life with tailored messaging, while also including an interactive element that helps audiences to take the next step down their journey to purchase. Ads could be dynamically updated with the address of a brand’s nearest brick and mortar store at the end of their promotion, or a scannable QR code that enables them to quickly head to the product page using their phone.

One of CTV’s greatest strengths, however, is its non-traditional ad formats. This means users can be reached with highly personalized ads before they’ve even started to watch content. Dynamic ad units on the home screen of CTV devices can be set to display unique messaging to custom triggers – such as the weather, location, time of day, or even sporting results.

A clothing brand looking to suggest holiday gift ideas to an audience could, for example, display ads for hats and gloves when the weather was cold, raincoats if it was raining and sunglasses if the sun was out. By using a data-led strategy, brands ensure that ads stay highly personalized to consumers and their specific situations.

The pressure to reach audiences during the Golden Quarter always weighs heavy on advertisers. CTV offers a way to reach out in a highly personalized and targeted way thanks to its increased addressability. This combination of granular audience data and highly flexible ad buying means that advertisers can maximize the potential of their budgets during this key shopping event.