New ANA/Innovid Research Study on Connected TV

By Bill Duggan

ANA

According to eMarketer, investment in connected TV (CTV) is soaring and ad spending will increase by double digits annually for the foreseeable future. In its just-released forecast for CTV ad spending (“Connected TV Trends Roundup,” January 2020), eMarketer estimates it will be $9 billion in 2020 and increase to $14 billion by 2023, accounting for 7 percent of total digital ad spending and 5 percent of total media spending. ANA and Innovid have recognized the rise of CTV and partnered in a new research study, “The State of Connected TV Report 2020,” which was released on January 16.

Key findings: connected TV significantly extends reach, provides more interactivity and increases earned time over standard ad experiences.

Seventeen major marketers participated in the study, running a total of 60 million impressions. Participating brands included Anheuser-Busch, Arby’s, AT&T Business, Bank of America, Brandman University, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, Kroger, La-Z-Boy, Mondelez, Taco Bell, TIAA, Visible, and White Castle.

Here are highlights of the findings:

• CTV Extends Audience Reach: CTV’s exclusive audiences of cord-cutters (households that are no longer pay TV households) and cord-nevers (households that have never been pay TV households), make it an ideal platform for extending the reach of linear TV campaigns, especially in competitive dayparts. 30 percent of CTV impressions were observed during the traditional primetime daypart (7:00 to 11:00 p.m.), compared to approximately 23 percent consumed on linear TV during the same period.
• CTV Provides Deeper Interactivity: Amid cross-screen competition, CTV’s enhanced digital capabilities can substantially deepen and redefine customer engagement as CTV interactive ads yielded an average engagement rate of 0.36 percent, which is on par with Innovid’s average across verticals. 15-second spots had an average engagement rate of 0.23 percent, compared to 0.41 percent for 30-second spots.
• CTV Provides More Time for Advertisers: CTV gives advertisers the ability to earn more of the viewer’s time, which potentially increases brand awareness and opportunities for conversions. Whether it is SMS, a browsable gallery with rich product detail or video vignettes with branding, interactive CTV campaigns achieved on average 71 seconds of incremental time above the initial length of the ad — a 237 percent increase over standard 30-second ads. 15-second ads garnered an average of 67 incremental seconds, amounting to an impressive 447 percent increase in total time with the consumer. Personally, my biggest surprise from this study is the substantial time earned from CTV. In an era where customers are fast forwarding through commercials and ad blockers prevent the viewing of digital ads, the time earned by CTV ads is extraordinary. It’s an ad unit that consumers actually want to engage in and spend more time with!

There’s little doubt that CTV is the future. Smart advertisers — like our study participants — are preparing for the future now and getting experience with CTV advertising.

The full report is available for download here.