Not too long ago, advertisers were tasked with moving ads from the pages of print newspapers and magazines to digital publisher pages. The initial instinct was to do a one-to-one translation, assuming that the internet functioned just like the real world.
Advertisers bought digital ad spaces and bundles with individual online publishers, just like they used to do with individual print publishers. But that was 1994โalmost three decades agoโand the in-between space is where digital advertising really โgrew upโ and continues to grow.
Over time, brands moved away from inefficient content adjacencies, adopting third-party cookies and rudimentary targeting as a mainstay. But as things became even more sophisticated over time, accurate, stable identity solutions came into the picture. Brands can now serve personalized ads across digital channels to real individual consumersโnot through just cookies, devices IDs or individual publishers.
This has not only improved the advertiser experienceโbecause marketers have more control and transparency around targeting and measurementโbut it also improved the consumer experience because ads are served to the consumer based on what they want, not just overserving a generic ad over and over.
What does all of this have to do with connected TV (CTV) advertising? Well, everything.
TV is the latest medium to go digital
Smart, connected TVs are making their way into homes around the world at an exponentially growing rate, and streaming platform apps are increasingly taking the place of linear TV. You likely know at least a few people in your life who are part of the 84.3 million โcord cuttersโ in the U.S. (yourself possibly included). This digital transformation mirrors that of media.
But many advertisers arenโt learning from the โawkward yearsโ of digital advertising. Put differently, advertisers moving from linear TV to CTV arenโt listening to their digital advertising experts and using those hard-earned…