Our digital advertising experts offer their forecasts for the state of the industry in 2023. Read their predictions on CTV, privacy and the customer experience.
Connected TV
"I expect and hope to see CTV become more user-friendly, especially for new entrants. As the TV industry pivots to a digital-first position (exemplified as much as anything by ITVX), there’ll be a natural streamlining of friction points that are currently holding back understanding of, and spend in, CTV. For example, the industry would benefit from more consistency in the data passed along the bid stream, a bedding-in of performance and incrementality measurement (proving beyond doubt that CTV has an increasing role to play on the media plan) and a de-siloing of supply.
Lastly, let’s have a Bonfire of the Acronyms (BOTA?)! If we want to appear more accessible to the layman, we need to simplify our language - e.g. does the term ‘OTT’ have any real utility anymore, and can we start using terms such as ‘Linear Streaming’ or ‘On-Demand Streaming’, instead of FAST, AVOD, BVOD, etc.?"
(originally published in ExchangeWire)
"CTV is currently the only medium within the home that offers the powerful combination of big screen branding impact and digital ‘style’ targeting, measurement and attribution. Thanks to this, it can act as a bridge between the two worlds of linear TV and digital advertising, and it is helping to bring these two disciplines closer together: both in terms of provoking more integrated strategies from advertisers, and at the practical level - for example in how agency teams are structured. When CTV ads are imbued with an element of interactivity (QR codes, for example) and strategically leveraged within a household-based sequential targeting solution, CTV turns into an engagement tool as well as a brand awareness one."
(originally published in The Drum)
Customer Experience
"While most companies understand the value of an integrated customer experience program across all touchpoints, advertising remains a clear laggard in the quest for a fully unified CX program. Too often, we see a luxury brand promoting a fabulous lifestyle adjacent to content about skyrocketing inflation, or an interruptive and repetitive video ad featuring a brand describing themselves as akin to a helpful neighbor. These types of advertising experiences come off as tone deaf and misaligned with modern customer expectations, so revisiting ad formats, placements, and frequency should be top of mind as we enter 2023. Utilizing opt-in video formats in place of interruptive pre-roll, highly targeted Connected TV (CTV) spots in place of mass-market linear ads, and content marketing to help consumers make more informed decisions are all tactics that provide a complimentary advertising approach to your CX efforts."
Privacy
"Despite the cookie status quo not actually changing in 2023 (as Google has pushed the Chrome third-party cookie deprecation to late 2024), there are a number of other aspects to digest.
The Connecticut, Colorado, Utah, and Virginia laws, plus California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) now fully taking effect, further harmonize the approach to personal user data. Compliance with these laws is of course a given and utilizing the shiny new Global Privacy Platform and Multi-State Privacy Agreement to support new states and countries (i.e., Canada) should be top of all adtech privacy professionals' to-do list.
Leveraging the Global Privacy Platform across connected TV (CTV) as well as desktop/mobile will keep us all busy during the first half of 2023, at least. Beyond that, advertisers can look toward the future, as it turns toward first-party pixels and a swell of legislative decisions surrounding new privacy regulations.
We will learn in the new year what the European Court of Justice thinks of the Global Privacy Platform's predecessor, the Transparency & Consent Framework. My gut tells me the privacy string will be considered personal data, but IAB Europe will be regarded as a processor. There may be changes required to Consent Management Platforms that will need to act as the controller, and part of the consent dialogue with users will include consent for creating and distributing the privacy string.
On December 13, 2022, the European Commission launched the process to adopt an adequacy decision on the new EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. I predict adequacy will be achieved and transatlantic companies will eagerly adopt the new framework. Presumably, this will take a similar form to demonstrate compliance to the old Privacy Shield, but it may take a different form. For example, perhaps companies registered with trade bodies (e.g., IAB) could be blanket-approved.
What's also certain is that the new Framework will be challenged in court, leading to a Schrems III-type ruling. The principal issue with Privacy Shield was that U.S. government agencies like the NSA could ultimately strong-arm any U.S. company to hand over data, even if that involved EU citizens in the EU. That will be the key test of this new Framework – whether it empowers a company like Google to say 'No' to the surveillance agencies."
(originally published in ANA)
