Shop Talk: Marketing Director’s Guide to OTT and CTV Advertising Strategies

In this episode of Colling Media ‘Shop Talk’, President Doug Campbell and Chief Digital Officer Jordan Schuster dive into the exciting world of OTT (Over-The-Top) and Connected Television. Explore the evolution of television advertising from traditional linear TV to the dynamic realm of streaming platforms like Hulu, Disney+, and Netflix.

As a Marketing Director or CMO, you understand the importance of staying ahead of the curve. This episode is your gateway to data-driven insights and effective campaigns to drive ROI. Don’t miss this opportunity to harness the full potential of modern television advertising. Tune in now and lead your brand to success in the digital marketing landscape.

“The measurability piece [of OTT & CTV] is probably one of my favorites…I can give you an actual Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) on it.”

Jordan Schuster, Chief Digital Officer, Colling Media

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Full ‘Shop Talk’ Podcast Transcript: Marketing Director’s Guide to OTT and CTV Advertising Strategies

Doug:

Hi, thanks so much for joining us for ‘Shop Talk’ today. My name’s Doug Campbell. I’m the president of Colling Media, and I’m joined here today by Jordan Schuster, our Chief Digital Officer. And we’re here today to talk about a topic that I know is near and dear to your heart, Jordan: OTT, Connected Television. So I’m curious, Jordan, what is OTT? How is it different from linear television?

Jordan:

Yeah, absolutely. First of all, thanks for having me, excited to be here. A couple of buzzwords we just heard Doug alluded to, OTT, “over the top” and connected television. So think of where television as the medium has been the last 60, 70 plus years. And where we are now as consumers and advertisers as a whole, we want the measurement, we want the trackability, we want the effectiveness, we want the right eyeball at the right time when it matters most, right? So the ability to actually layer on streaming television…so the Hulus of the world, the Disney plus, the, the Netflix, all of these streaming channels to where we are now able to place effective ads at that exact moment. It gives us the measurement, the trackability, the reporting in terms of, where are those actual conversions happening. And the viewership is shifting to those mediums. A lot less of us are actually consuming cable, cutting the cord, per se, and we are really taking that medium to a whole new level of where it’s actually headed. So, as time goes on, as advertisers and their budget scale, it’s a medium and tactic and channel that more brands of all sizes are shifting their dollars because of the trackability and the effectiveness of CTV and OTT.

Doug:

Yeah, I think that’s great. I think you hit on really several really important pieces there. You know, the measurement, the audience, the trackability, the targeting, all those sorts of pieces. I am sort of curious about our visitors out there, our listeners who are used to buying linear television. What is the inventory like, how does that compare to what they’re used to buying on linear TV?

Jordan:

Absolutely. So think of, as we talked about earlier, all the premium publishers to where we’re consuming the media and the actual, eyeballs that are tracking and that are purchasing the inventory that we have. So ones that we consume in our daily lives and habits, the Hulus, the ESPNs, the Disneys, all the big ones that we have, and we have the ability to run that programmatically through a seamless fashion to where we’re able to buy the inventory in real-time on top of the layers. So you want to have demographic in-market, affinity, and behavioral types of data for certain data points to actually attract the end user. Again, we’re less focused on where they’re actually viewing the content but more on the characteristics of that person and the intent that we want them to have to take an actionable next step.

Doug:

Yeah, I think that’s probably one of what I find the most intriguing parts about this so much of linear television was based on “I’m buying inventory. I’m buying a program, I’m buying a show” and my hypothesis is “the person I’m trying to reach probably watches this show.” And out of the audience, there’s a hundred people watching, and 56 of them are actually the person I’m looking for. Yeah. So there’s a certain amount of waste, and the ability now to target, so specifically where you’re after the end user, you’re after that eyeball rather than just the program, so you can get the eyeball. Tell me more about that.

Jordan:

It really does take a lot of the guesswork out of it, right? So think of, you know, back in the day we would have a commercial and we’d run it on a program or a network, and we would just hope that person was the right person that we’re trying to attract. So we do take a lot of the more measurement or the effectiveness in terms of the audience segmentation of that right person at the end of the day, who will take that action that we want ’em to take. So there’s a lot more lift in terms of what that looks like, but as it’s involved in this tactic and channel have really grown, the measurement capability and the effectiveness of putting the right ad to that user has been very flawless. And it’s a tactic and advertisers are really pushing a lot of their time, their investment, and conversation towards over the last handful of years.

Doug:

Yeah. I think it’s been an interesting transition there, and it leads us pretty well into it. You mentioned, you know, we can now target the user based on their actual habits, who they are, you mentioned “in the market” earlier, pieces like that. And it sort of leads us into that next piece, which is that measurement. When I think of buying linear television, whether it’s a cable buy, a broadcast, network buy, I might have cost per point. I might ask them to give it to me as a CPM but that’s not what they’re used to. Or, I’m just measuring reach and frequency? But that’s not how we’re measuring OTT, is it?

Jordan:

As I said, it’s, it’s definitely evolved. So much like the programmatic channels that you could run, a lot of this inventory, it’s not clickable. You can’t just physically go to a TV, and click on an ad. A lot of it’s based on that first initial touch. You see the ad on your phone, you might go home, and watch it on your desktop or actual physical device in your household. But the layer of the measurement piece… If it’s somebody who’s exposed to an ad for the first time and we want them to take an action on the website or a brick-and-mortar store to where you’re buying a set of tires, we could then track that back down to the physical store visitation based on when that ad was shown to that user. So there’s a lot of metrics that go into it in terms of the tracking capabilities that allow this channel to be so effective and so precise of how we actually find that end user to take the result that we want them to take. So, really, the limitations … there’s not a lot in terms of this channel and where it actually goes to find the users we’re looking to attract.

Doug:

Yeah. And I think the measurability piece is probably one of my favorites. I know that, as marketers, we have a lot of belief that brand is an important part of the customer journey. It’s an important part of the funnel. And there’s obviously there’s been, over the last decade or two, this tension between the bottom of the funnel, last-click attribution, performance-driven marketing, and people are left out saying, well, how do you justify your TV spend? And we know in our hearts, but it’s so hard to prove sometimes without, like, a brand lift survey, I guess, to actually prove that it’s working. But now I’ve seen your team do things with online checkouts that are cross-device. I saw it on my television and then I showed up on my cell phone and I made a purchase. I can give you an actual ROAS on it. And I can give you a cost per store visit. And I think it’s, it’s really impactful.

Jordan:

Well, I’ll tell you, if you have another five hours, we could talk about attribution all day long. Not the time or place, but we could. But to your point, yes, and the ability to layer this channel into a programmatic fashion really is the selling point. So all advertisers that are questioning or have just a curious thought in their head about what this looks like for my brand? How does it actually play a role in the marketing funnel? It could be top, it could be mid, it could be bottom. The key piece of this is the measurement and effectiveness behind the channel itself, and as it evolves, with those types of measurement pieces that Doug alluded to, it’s something that is gonna continue to grow and scale as time goes on.

Doug:

Yeah. One last piece I wanted to make sure we touched on the topic here is that when I’m thinking about buying linear television, all I picture is the television in the living room. Maybe I might also think about a television at a sports bar. But with OTT and Connected TV, there are so many more devices available in this inventory. Tell me more about that.

Jordan:

So we have phones, we have tablets, we have laptops, we have household televisions in our living room. So anywhere that an ad could be placed on any screen across devices, those four devices are the main ones. We could then track that across all inventory, no matter the device that they’re consuming that advertisement on. So the ability to track that from first impression, based on your conversion window, to the end of the funnel, up into a sale, up into a purchase, up into a web submission, the trackability from start to finish, really is something that separates this channel from the historical videos on NBC and, you know, we’re just kind of crossing our fingers that it goes to the right person. And the measurement behind that was very vague. It was a question mark of what actually happened after that person saw that, that ad or that commercial. So again, we take guesswork, out of the equation, and we put more trackability and measurement into place for us, which at the end of the day, that’s what advertisers are looking for. They’re looking for key pieces to understand how their advertising is driving their bottom line.

Doug:

Yeah. I love it. I know this is a topic that you and I could probably talk about for days. And, and I also know we probably have a time window my producer wants me to keep in mind, but you know, we’ve touched on really several key points here. The audience is shifting, not just in the sense of cutting the cord. It’s not just that there are fewer people that consume via broadcast or via cable, and they’re switching to the Hulus or YouTube TVs of the world. The devices are changing too. They’re not just doing it on a big screen, they’re doing it on a laptop. They’re doing it on a tablet, they’re doing it on a smartphone. And because we’re able to buy it in this programmatic way, we can target them more effectively. So it doesn’t matter if they’re watching NFL programming or if they’re watching a knitting show… It’s the right eyeball. I can get in front of ’em, I can track what they’re doing all the way through and really prove to the CFOs in the world what the CMO has known all along, which is that upper funnel video has a really big impact, and it’s a really important piece.

Jordan:

And it works. Absolutely.

Doug:

Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Jordan. I really appreciate it. For Jordan Schuster and the entire team here at Colling Media, I’m Doug Campbell.