In a panel discussion at e4m’s Connected TV Conference 2024, experts gathered to discuss the dynamic duo of AI & CTV, and what can be achieved when both are leveraged to their maximum potential. The panellists were Jatin Punamiya, Head of Digital and Audience Data, L'Oreal; Uday Sodhi, Ex Business Head, Sony Liv; Abhishek Upadhya, Vice President, Digital Strategy & Innovation, HiveMinds - A Unit of Madison World and Raghavendra Katte, Assistant Vice President, Jyothy Laboratories Ltd. The panel was chaired by Jai Lala, CEO of Zenith.
Lala started the discussion by talking about the big role CTV plays in today’s marketing landscape, and how AI is also one of the greatest agendas for the marketing fraternity. He then opened the floor for the panellists to put forward their thoughts on leveraging AI & CTV together.
Punamiya highlighted how the beauty industry in India is not highly penetrated. “The beauty regime in India is evolving, and that is where CTV plays an important role for us. When it comes to us finding our audience, CTV is very helpful. It allows you to give the amazing experience of the big screen, but with the precision of digital,” he added. For L’Oreal’s portfolio brands, he added, a majority of the audience is digital-first, which is why CTV proves to be a desired medium for the brand.
Speaking of AI, Punamiya mentioned that AI has been used to enhance CTV. “It probably has just scratched the surface, and has a lot more possibilities,” he added.
Sodhi pointed out how India is now a country with a billion screens. “About 40 million of these screens are connected.” With AI in the picture, according to Sodhi, two things are set to fundamentally change. One is the creation of content and advertising.
“The economics of content creation and creating ads will undergo a significant change with generative AI. The other change is that the screen now is an intelligent screen, with far more access to cohorts, information and what the consumer is doing. That is a lot more than what linear television was able to give you, so that might change the way you target ads,” he added.
According to Sodhi, media planning will change, resulting in a very different role that CMOs will eventually play. “I imagine their role will become more ‘data’ officers and not ‘marketing’ officers.”
Upadhya further highlighted that when one says CTV, a tag that generally comes with that is ‘affluent’ audience or ‘well-to-do’ audience. “I think fundamentally we got that one tag wrong. It is not affluent audiences, it is early adopter audiences. So a certain category of brands who are looking at that set of psychographic audiences, CTV may be the right choice for them,” he said. According to him, the CTV growth in India has been phenomenal and there won’t be such a differentiation between linear and CTV going forward.
Katte chimed in by mentioning that if the FMCG sector has started following a medium, that means the medium has arrived. “If you ask us now whether CTV has happened, we would say yes it has happened. Are you sad? Very sad, because FMCG is dependent on TV. The challenges of TV should get addressed on Connected TV,” he said. Katte added that CTV is just an answer to the challenges in the top, mid and bottom funnel. “So from an FMCG point of view, yes, CTV might be big but it is like a small kid in the candy room where your hands are tied and you can’t touch any goodies,” he said.
Katte also highlighted that the key lies in how AI will open up the three funnels; the future lies in how an Amazon or a Jio is going to answer it and how the large number of OTT platforms will solve the funnel issue.
