mediasmartâ€™s Nikhil Kumar decodes the CTV advertising potential for brands

‘India CTV Report 2021 - Mapping Connected TV (CTV) Viewership in India and the Opportunities for Brands’, a report by mediasmart, an Affle company, highlights the changing media consumption patterns of the Indian consumer. India is undergoing digital transformation and consumers are steadily moving away from traditional linear TV to CTV and OTTs. This change presents an untapped advertising opportunity for brands and advertisers. The report highlights consumer adoption insights layered with an expert view on the possible advertising potential.

Speaking to Adgully, Nikhil Kumar, Senior Director - Brand & Strategy, mediasmart, an Affle company, shares the findings and insights from the report, advertiser adoption of CTV, the potential offered by CTV Advertising, and much more.

The CTV Report 2021 is an interesting research, which mediasmart has carried out. What was the objective of conducting this study in India on the viewing habits towards CTV? Is this the first time that this research is being done and what kind of frequency are you looking at?

India has undergone a significant digital transformation post the pandemic and has seen consumers steadily moving away from traditional Linear TV to watching OTT and other content on CTV. This change also presents an untapped advertising opportunity for leading brands. While consumers have adapted to this new medium very fast, we see advertisers slowly warming up to it. One of the reasons limiting faster advertiser adoption of CTV was the lack of standard industry metrics and measurement methodologies. As a leading programmatic platform focused on CTV advertising, we at mediasmart wanted to change that and that led us commission this research to help us understand the CTV behaviour patterns in India. We have published this report for the first time and we are looking to do it regularly now to provide greater market understanding and industry metrics that would help fast track the growth of this industry.

How did you go about doing this research and what was the methodology applied? How many towns did you cover in your research study and how did you go about identifying those towns?

We partnered with VTION Digital Analytics to run a first-party data survey with their audiences mostly spread across metros, Tier 1 and 2 towns. VTION has an interesting panel-led methodology and that led us quickly scale the scope of this project. The survey methodology sought to cover audiences across genders without any bias with the core qualifier criterion of ownership of Smart TV and consumption of the Internet via their Smart TV. The survey covered Delhi-NCR, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh/ Telangana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and recorded responses from all respondents with the above qualifier.

From a media planning perspective, where will CTV figure on the planning front and how will it help brands leverage their campaigns?

Industry observers are keenly following how India’s multi-screen viewing habits are shaping up. If one were to look at the western digital advertising spends pie, CTV has already cemented its place. It is interesting to watch leading advertisers in the country adopt CTV advertising as a critical new addition to their media mix. CTV advertising is here to stay and with evolutionary solutions provided by mediasmart with our Household Sync Technology, we are creating unified consumer journeys across devices with CTV being the pillar for it.

If one were to look at the brand impact of CTV in comparison to the traditional TV or online video, CTV in the past has also proven to have led on both metrics of ad awareness and purchase intent in comparison to Linear TV on independent brand lift surveys. It is no surprise that the brands have begun to embrace CTV as well.

Our platform offers an innovative approach to help optimise the CTV opportunity. With mediasmart’s unique Household Sync Technology, advertisers can make ads more engaging by syncing CTV ad campaigns with ads on other connected devices in the same household. Brands can launch CTV campaigns to a specific audience in the same household, target premium inventory, measure results and drive them to the nearest store.

CTV is still at a nascent stage. There is no clear data available from where insights can be pulled out on the viewing habits. How will this gap and challenge be addressed?

Agreed, CTV viewing in India is still at a nascent stage and the advertisers also don’t have much insight into who these audiences are and how they are consuming CTV. This is the exact problem we are trying to solve with the CTV India Report helping to create standard industry metrics and Household Sync technology driving greater measurement for CTV ad spends.

Advertisers globally – and in India – are lapping up the CTV opportunity as it continues to grow as an exciting medium for digital advertising. We have seen great results and ROI for some of our top clients in India, who are already using the CTV advertising proposition on mediasmart.

What are the significant trends that you have noticed? What are the key takeaways from this study and how will it excite brands when they look at their media strategies?

According to the Report, the key CTV viewership trends and takeaways include:

Out of the select audience surveyed, 78% own a Smart TV and 93% of these smart TV users access Internet-based content
Mobile-first, active and aware CTV consumers: CTV users who are already mobile-first and are actively engaging with diverse apps such as – 89% of the respondents are social media users, 82% are e-commerce, 44% are gamers and more
Content on demand: Over 59% of the respondents prefer downloading apps via Smart TV App Store, while 26% respondents primarily consume content via pre-installed apps and a small section (15% respondents) use the dongle to stream content on TV
One device, many uses: Close to 70% respondents spend between 1 and 4 hours on CTV watching movies (91%), streaming music (64%), playing games (47%) or watching news (64%)
Spending ability and OTT preferences: Over 65% respondents subscribe to more than one OTT app. There is 40%+ adoption for the leading eight OTT apps in India: Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon’s Prime Video, Netflix, ZEE5, MXPlayer, Sony LIV, VOOT and ALTBalaji. The inclination on app usage is also heavily dependent on seasonality and timing
Limited barriers to viewership and adoption: Unlike mobile usage of the Internet, CTV consumption cuts across age and language barriers. By going vernacular, advertisers can engage with users in ads of their language.

For brands and advertisers, CTV brings together the twin strengths of: (a) Engaging storytelling associated with CTV Advertising, and (b) Targeting associated with Programmatic & Digital Advertising. With this twin-fold targeting, brands can achieve three-pronged impacts:

High Impact storytelling on CTV
Amplified engagement on CTV exposed audience on mobile
Drive action and conversion on mobile

Going forward, where do you see CTV headed in India and how are we placed as compared to the West?

CTV consumption and also CTV advertising has very well cemented its place in the western markets, especially in the US. India has started really well on consumer adoption of CTV and cheaper Smart TVs, dongles and data plans together with compelling content propositions of leading OTT players are only going to accelerate this change going forward. As consumers spend more time on this device/ content format, ad dollars will also eventually move in this direction as the Indian market will see growth for both subscriber funded SVOD content and advertiser funded AVOD content on CTV. Therefore, we remain bullish on this opportunity and see India as a key market for our CTV business on mediasmart.