Standardization Will Drive CTV Ads, But We're Not There Yet

The future is bright for connected TV (CTV) ad sales, but the industry needs to lay a little groundwork before that can happen. Speaking at the recent Video Marketing Power Summit in New York City, Todd Johnson, vice president of emerging technology for YuMe, explained the benefits of standardization:

"When we have one currency with which we transact on, that will drive a lot of this integration and it will really speed it up," Johnson said. "So if I'm transacting on connected TV with GRPs, or I'm transacting on linear TV with, as we say, digital impressions, then we can start grouping this in from a buying and execution standpoint.

"I think that's probably the barrier, is getting some of the execution piece streamlined and measurement piece streamlined, but that's what's exciting about it. I mean I go into meetings and I could talk to digital teams, I could talk to TV teams, I could talk to strategic planning teams as well. It still feels pretty fragmented even in New York. You get outside of New York and it's wild."

While it's easy to look to the major measurement companies and wonder when they'll have true cross-platform measurement that includes CTV, that's not the only obstacle. Achieving standardization means getting a lot of players playing together.

"I don't want to put this at the feet of Nielsen. There's an ad execution challenge to this as well: The information that's being passed back in the connected TV universe is not standardized or consistent," Johnson said. "When you think about executing mobile, it's Android and it's iOS, and you've got the majority of the market covered, and if they're in lockstep on what's being passed back and forth then you can build a consistent and scalable business. When that takes effect in CTV, that'll allow us to add measurement to it in a more scaled manner, and then everything really takes off."

For more, watch the full video below from the Video Marketing Power Summit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uroup5HMgU

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net