Unpacking the Top Takeaways From DeepIntent's CTV Summit

Among the other takeaways:

The wall between linear and CTV continues to erode. The average viewer makes no distinction between the two. Jason Wiese, Senior Vice President and Director of Strategic Insights at the VAB noted a recent survey. When asked what they consider to be TV, "45% of consumers said that TV is anything they're watching on TV, whether it was linear TV or streaming. There was another 25% that said that anything they are watching on any sort of device is TV."

CTV presents a distinct advantage for pharma advertisers. Pharmaceutical advertisers need sight, sound, motion and 60-second ad units to accommodate regulatory requirements.With programmatic as the tool and CTV as the vehicle, "you're getting the sight, sound and motion of television, but you also have addressability, so you're able to target households, individuals, devices," said Matt McLeggon, Senior Vice President of Advanced Solutions at Magnite.

Three-pronged strategies are terrific, but the CTV part is by far the strongest. Adam Thomas, Vice President, Addressable Strategy at Matterkind, cited findings from his team's work with DeepIntent: "Combining all three channels -- video, display and CTV -- outperformed everything from an individual perspective. But when we broke that down further, we found that CTV actually outperformed the other channels, by at least two times."

Advertising is not dead, but irrelevant ads are. Some panelists noted that during the height of the pandemic, most viewers were no longer willing to sit through commercials in general. But a new perception has surfaced: Consumers are okay with pharmaceutical ads if they are personal and relevant. A study by DeepIntent and LG Ads Solutions revealed that 65% of TV viewers say that relevant ads improve their overall experience. Programmatic heightens advertisers' ability to personalize.

Brand safety concerns are addressed with improved technology. As with all digital advertising, programmatic poses issues for brand safety. However, that is being addressed and the situation continues to improve. The better the data, the safer the environment. According to Steve Mougis, Global Chief Revenue Officer at Double Verify, "There are blocking and filtering capabilities that allow you to exclude certain types of content. People should feel safe and comfortable."

Privacy challenges are being met. CTV is not immune to privacy legislation -- for example, the General Data Protection Regulation and Digital Services Act in Europe and similar laws passed in several U.S. states. Pharma also must comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) regulations. Scott Menzer, Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Customer Service Operations and Product at ID5, noted: "We need to be working together. We need standardization whether that's privacy, whether it's identity, whether that's data. We need ways to communicate in a standardized way that allows marketers to reach the audiences they want in a privacy-compliant way."

The difference is in the data.The advantages of CTV were summed up by Carrie Craigmyle, Senior Vice President of Client Strategy at DeepIntent: "We literally can tell in real time what's working, what's not. DeepIntent Outcomes allows us to see what metrics matter most to a pharma marketer -- audience quality, script, script behavior. We're reaching patients. We're linking our exposure to actual script, and there is no one else that can do that."

Click the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friends.
The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.com/MyersBizNet.