What TV and video innovations will make their mark in the new year? There are as many possibilities as there are ways to follow this year’s bowl games. Live, recorded, on-demand, social media, OTT. How do marketers make sense of this fragmented space? What advances will gain the most yardage?
5G In 2019, 5G will push the proliferation of mobile video, gaming and CTV/OTT apps even further into the mainstream. After years of steady growth in the story of mobile video, this new connectivity will result in an explosion of opportunities. Companies in the adtech sector poised to cash in on these opportunities, as more budgets continue to shift away from display advertising and into video, will reap ever larger rewards in 2019.
— David R. DiAngelo, Head of Marketplace Development, InMobi
Automated direct buys Modern linear TV ad buying platforms utilize a safer model, where brands directly transact with publishers that carefully curate their content and get better engagement. As such, we should expect to see even more ad dollars changing hands in the coming year. Automated direct buys are more effective, plus they simplify the supply chain. Brands retain control of their advertising budgets so rival publishers can’t overrun the network with false impressions. This model also discourages independent fraudsters with malicious intent, making it a smarter strategy all around. Of course, once the industry neutralizes one threat another usually comes up before long. As such, marketers must remain vigilant and need to hold themselves, and their partners, accountable in 2019 and beyond.
— Shereta Williams, President, Videa
Visual search shopping Visual search is also poised to be a game-changing technology for marketers. For example, Snapchat recently announced a partnership with Amazon to offer users a new image-based shopping feature — users snap a photo of a product and Amazon will ring up a menu of store purchase options. While the technology is certainly out there, the opportunities for brands are still in the early days, and first movers will stand to gain substantial competitive advantage.
— Wes MacLaggan, SVP of Marketing, Marin Software
Quick messaging and contextual advertising In terms of ad formats, 2019 will be the year of creativity, relevancy and non-disruption. As viewers continue to diversify the way they view content – from TVs to computer screens to mobile – and split their attention between screens, advertisers need to not only be able to follow the eyeballs but keep their attention.This year, advertisers will have to develop impactful ads that quickly deliver their main message. At the same time, it is important to measure their effectiveness in terms of viewability, completion rate and brand recall. Taking this into account, dailymotion just released a new ad format called “Fast Impact,” where users have the opportunity to go straight to the main message of the brand. Contextual advertising will also take center stage in 2019, as a solution to increasing privacy regulations. It is also very effective because it reached the right person at the right time in the right context – reducing its disruptiveness.
— Mike Aidane, VP of Engineering Ad Tech, Dailymotion
AR & VR 2019 will likely herald bigger and better integration of AR across smart devices, and there will be a wellspring of AR creator platforms run by the tech giants – opening up the possibilities of building unique brand worlds. Simultaneously, VR will be used increasingly as part of the design process. In addition, while the increase in online privacy is making measurement harder for the digital reach of live experiences, smarter, lighter technologies will make tracking and connectivity to the physical world simpler and smoother.
— Harry Osborne and Paul Boulding, Creative Directors, Set Creative.
OTT re-targeting The ability to serve an OTT ad to a person — who has seen a display ad, has been to a website or mobile app, or has been in a geo- fence— is still an experiment in many shapes and forms. At scale, there are so many applications for a pin-pointed message that is served on a large screen with sight, sound and motion.”
— Aman Sareen, CEO, ZypMedia
Experiential Viewing and 5G Verizon’s shift toward 5G and away from the Oath advertising model is about more than just wireless — it’s about powering the experiential viewing explosion. 5G delivers gigabit-level speed and quality improvements to video that supports new, more interactive formats. So whether it’s a choose-your-own-adventure that lets viewers follow specific storylines, or millions of people binging collectively in a Twitch-style marathon, 5G is what will make that content flow smoothly across all devices. Other traditional media players may try to jump in and take the lead on experiential viewing, but it starts with Verizon’s push to become the most scaled provider of 5G.
— Jay Prasad, CSO, VideoAmp
CTV rises The growth of Connected TV (CTV) will continue to accelerate next year – and there is one key reason why. CTV will avoid what happened to cable TV. When cable viewers installed DVR, CPMs dropped. And because CPMs dropped, cable networks added more ads, which drove more DVR sales – and so the vicious cycle continued. But, because CTV enables advertisers to deliver the most relevant ads to their target audiences, we’ll see the opposite effect. CPMs will increase, and advertisers will be willing to pay higher prices for these effective, data-driven ad placements. And it will be a win-win-win for all those involved: from the buy side to the sell side to the consumer.
— Dave Pickles, CTO, The Trade Desk
Smart ads Every week, more and more households consume a greater percentage of their TV time shifting to CTV. And with CTV, a greater percentage of the shows, no matter when they are watched, will have different ads tailored specifically for that household. This means the old system of ratings for shows becomes less and less relevant as a metric for advertisers to gauge reach. Back when MTV was on the rise the slogan was “I want my MTV.” In 2019, I feel like imploring “don’t dumb down my CTV.”
— Andre Swanston, CEO, Tru Optik
