Has Connected TV made media plans more effective?
Everybody is talking about Connected TV today, and the medium’s growth has been nothing less than phenomenal. To celebrate the growth of the medium and talk about the possibilities and challenges in the CTV ecosystem, exchange4media Group hosted the second edition of the e4m Connected TV Conference in Mumbai, which saw participation from several industry luminaries. Vivek Malhotra, Group CMO, India Today Group, came together with Rajiv Rajagopal, Business Head, GroupM, for a fireside chat around the space. Vivek Malhotra, Group CMO, India Today Group, acknowledged the growth of Connected TV and went on to ask, “Has Connected TV made your media plans more effective, and does it give you the ability to serve hard-to-reach audiences?”
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Answering the question, Rajiv Rajagopal, Business Head, GroupM, said, “Connected TV has two avatars to it; it is the best of both worlds because it is primarily an extension of TV, but brands are also looking at it as an effective targeting mechanism. Today, CTV has to play multiple functional roles.”
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Whether it is the inclusion of CTV in the TV plan or the medium’s ability to increase reach, brands are heavily adopting it. Speaking on it further, Rajagopal shared, “I see brands making it a part of their TV plan to create incremental reach, while I also see it being used for hyperlocal targeting, which helps us in creating catchment areas.” Rajagopal shared that there are many hyperlocal platforms that don’t come on national platforms to avoid spillage, but CTV is helping them in this regard. It is noted that the adoption of CTV is across the spectrum. It can not only add efficiency but also help in reaching out to relevant audiences and markets and provide a boost in certain markets where other mediums are not helping. GroupM has actively worked in this space over the last few years, and to shed light on it, Rajagopal added, “As long as we can keep the spectrum open, there is a use case for every category. In the last one and a half years, we have unlocked around 23 categories, highlighting that they cut across all segments. This large adoption of CTV across spectrums has led to a skyrocketing of impressions from 2020 to 2023. Therefore, brands should set aside a certain budget for piloting new age mediums.” Malhotra said that CTV brings addressability to erstwhile mediums that were not so addressable. He then asked Rajagopal if it is addressability that makes CTV special or if it has the same kind of reach that linear TV does. To which, Rajagopal replied, “Like my colleague says ‘CTV is TV on steroids’. Whatever innovation we are doing on CTV is empowering the whole ecosystem. All these innovations are available on linear TV as well, it is just about how you deploy it and what is the objective of the deployment.” The duo reckoned that addressability is an important proposition and went on to talk about how the medium provides data signals and insights to add on to the addressability.