Running a campaign across multiple iterations of television is increasingly complex, according to The Trade Desk’s VP for ANZ, James Bayes.
Brands investing ad dollars into TV not only have to deal with an ever-changing definition of the medium but an audience fragmented across more platforms.
Numbers released by industry body ThinkTV show that Total TV revenue fell 8.1% to $3.3 billion in the year to June.
BVOD revenue was up 12.7% to $441 million, however, with advertising investment in platforms 7plus, 9Now and 10 Play increasing 12.9% to $212 million for the six months to June.
While that double-digit growth in BVOD revenue isn’t enough to offset the overall decline in linear TV investment, Bayes said The Trade Desk is still an “enormous” believer in the power of TV and its ability to be able to drive results for clients.
“It's just never been more complex to stitch together a total TV strategy across broadcast, BVOD, SVOD and all other forms of premium video content,” he said.
Knowing advertisers are spreading their spend across multiple platforms is perhaps one reason The Trade Desk recently signed a deal to be able to bring inventory from streaming giant Netflix into its platform.
The Trade Desk joins Google's Display & Video 360, Magnite and Microsoft as the main programmatic partners for advertisers for the Netflix.
One area of positivity Bayes sees in the broader TV arena is the impact of Seven's new streaming deals for the cricket and AFL.
The full digital rights to the AFL on 7plus kick in with the Brownlow Medal and the AFL Grand Final in a week's time, with digital rights to cricket beginning on 7plus next month.
He said these deals could prove “really transformative” not just for Seven, but also for the overall BVOD category more broadly.
“What we're talking about is effectively the first time that Australia's largest summer and winter sports are available on a free, ad-funded streaming service for the first time,” he told AdNews.
“The impact of that is that potentially millions of new users are forming a habit of using these BVOD services on a weekly basis, which has to have a really positive halo on the overall market.
“Certainly in terms of the revenue expectations, we should expect to see just those two deals alone really significantly grow the overall BVOD revenue numbers.”
With retail media showing no signs of slowdown – WARC said retail media is set to lead digital growth this year – the interplay of the sector with TV provides an interesting proposition for advertisers.
In the US, Bayes said The Trade Desk has “almost become a default aggregation point” for retail data, working with Dollar General, Albertsons, Walmart, Target and Kroger, while more locally, the company has access to both Circana and Flybuys retail data in its platform.
Bayes said the ability to be able to take that retail data and overlay it on top of premium video and BVOD content is something that The Trade Desk is seeing increased demand for in Australia.
“A couple of years ago, people were saying ‘where is the money going to come from for retail media networks?’ and while it may be true to an extent that it will come out of television, I also think retail data has the potential to be able to really accelerate the impact and prove the power of BVOD and streaming by bringing a new level of measurability to that environment that hasn't existed before,” he said.
“I think one of the big trends that we're seeing is this move away from media metrics like CPMs and reach metrics, which have been the foundations of how we've thought about planning and activating media broadly, and moving to more of an outcomes-based model and helping brands to understand outputs aligned to inputs.
“It’s about stitching together and shining a light on performance and effectiveness and the contribution of media investment to bottom line business results.”
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