According to eMarketer, Connected TV users will increase to 204 million viewers by 2022, representing 60% of the U.S. population. That’s a lot of eyeballs to reach. But you have to find them first.

To help you prepare for - and make sense of - all the opportunities this represents for marketers, the MMA brought together forward-thinking experts including advertisers (Pepsico, Cadillac, Frito Lay), entertainment providers (Roku, Vizio, Discovery+), digital media providers (Kochava, PadSquad), and more, for a day dedicated to Connected TV Unplugged 2021.

Here are the key takeaways from Connected TV Unplugged 2021:

Oatmeal... Reimagined for a Younger Audience

Kate Brady, Head of Media Innovation and Partnership Development for PepsiCo (Quaker Oats) is leveraging Connected TV to reach incremental buyers, drive sales, and attract a younger and growing audience base. For oatmeal! See how she did it.

Key Takeaways Include:

• 27% of consumers are expected to cut the cord on linear TV in favor of the convenience and low cost of streaming TV. This is on top of the 11% of consumers who have already cut the cord this past year.
  
  
• These trends hold for both older and younger TV viewers.
  
  
• Among Adults 18-49, Quaker Oats was able to realize 11% incremental growth by adding Roku to their media mix, in addition to linear TV. There was only 1% overlap between the Roku and linear audiences.
  
  
• 75% of this incremental volume came from new and lapsed buyers.
  
  
• Quaker Oats realized a 4% increase in sales lift through this effort - a success for the 100-year old brand!

Land of the Streaming Giants

Everyone is talking about personalization at scale. But does anyone really know how to achieve it? According to Rajkumar Venkatesan, Professor of Business Administration, Darden Business School at the University of Virginia, brands can leverage the deep consumer insights of streaming services to develop relevant and personalized marketing campaigns.

Key Takeaways Include:

• Use the data and algorithms available from streaming giants and CTV to personalize all of your interaction with customers.
  
  
• Streaming giants have a “data advantage” in that they can learn user preferences and use this information to target them with personalized content.
  
  
• Brands already down the path of AI personalization follow a five-step process: data foundation, experimentation, expansion, transformation, and monetization.
  
  

Driving Audience Growth From Where They Are: Cadillac

Marceline Perez, Associate Director of Cross Channel Strategy & Activation at Cadillac, shared a case study on how the brand is using Connected TV to “flip the funnel,” expanding their 1:1 customer approach over time, and what success looks like today and moving forward.

Key Takeaways Include:

• The balance of power in the purchase funnel is shifting from a brand-led world to a consumer-led world.
  
  
• A “people-based” approach to marketing means knowing what your consumers’ true interests and motivations are so you can do what’s right for them at this time.
  
  
• Flipping the funnel means starting with a subset of people more likely to buy and reaching them first; then filling the remainder of your funnel with broader opportunities.
  
  
• Cadillac experienced a 29% lift in sales with targeted consumers from the CTV space 2X more likely to buy compared to linear TV, for a total ROI of 225%!
  
  

TV Goes Over the Top: OTT and CTV

Four panelists talked about what the future holds for Over-The-Top (OTT) media services offered via the Internet, and Connected TV’s (CTV).

Key Takeaways Include:

• OTT spending is projected to reach $14.6B by 2023, up from $8.2B in 2020. (Forbes)
  
  
• Advertisers had been concerned about advertising on streaming platforms because the metrics weren’t there yet, but in the past year, the same metrics that brands are used to in mobile advertising have been available for the OTT/CTV space.
  
  
• Many viewers are watching premium content that’s not ad-supported, but they’re supplementing that with ad-supported viewership to explore new content without having to pay a subscription fee.
  
  
• Conversions can take place on a tablet or mobile device as well as a CTV device - cross-screen attributions are driving conversions independent of the screen that the conversion is occurring on.
  
  

Roku & Cheetos: Perfect Together

Chris Bruss, Head of Roku’s Brand Studio, sat down with Jessica Spaulding, Head of Marketing for Cheetos (Frito Lay) to unpack how the brand is leveraging immersive ad formats to create a memorable moment for streamers, pushing the envelope on the future of consumer engagement.

Key Takeaways Include: 

• Super Bowl commercials can be extended beyond Game Day through CTV, as in what Cheetos did in partnership with Snapchat for their “Snap to Steal campaign.” (See the campaign in our on-demand recording, “Activating Branded Experiences on TV Streaming.”)
  
  
• Cheetos realized 178% added impressions with their CTV campaign
  
  
• Roku Brand Studio created the “Roku Recommends” content discovery show to help break down what to watch each weekend through Roku. Brands can sponsor segments and get woven into the show before the user may switch to a non-ad supported network. (See a clip from “Roku Recommends” in the on-demand recording for “Activating Branded Experiences on TV Streaming.”)
  
  
• People still want to watch free, ad-supported entertainment - they enjoy that it’s free, simple to access, and understand that advertising provides the free experience.
  
  

Cutting the Cord: The Future of OTT

By 2022, more than half of Americans are estimated to cut the cord to their cable providers, driving tremendous growth to OTT media services accessed through the internet. Are we at a tipping point? Or past it? Jessica Reif Ehrlich, Senior Media and Entertainment Analyst at BofA Securities, Inc. Global Research, shared the state of OTT now, predictions on where it’s headed in the next few years, and the implications for marketers.

Reimagining Broadcast Video Creative for the Age of CTV

The original broadcast TV spot aired 80 years ago. Time for a refresh? Lance Wolder, Head of Client Strategy and Marketing for PadSquad shared how brands can evolve and reimagine their video creative with Interactive CTV. He showed an example of advertising from Bulova, from 1941 and what it could look like today. (See the Bulova “reimagined” spot for today in the on-demand recording for “Reimagining Video Creative For CTV”)

Key Takeaways Include: 

• Brands spend a fortune on TV, yet the format hasn’t changed much. Why? Because it works! And TV is the most trusted media type.
  
  
• Advertisers can leverage sight, sound, motion and interactivity, (including QR codes) to create remarkable TV.
  
  
• Making TV shoppable is very exciting! (Add to cart is a means of simplicity consumers expect from digital experiences, including interactive, Connected TV.)
  
  
• 1 in 250 viewers will use the remote to interact with a unique format through interactive television; 82% of Direct-to-Consumer shoppers will take action when seeing one of these spots.
  
  

Things are moving at breakneck speed in the world of OTT and CTV. Stay with the MMA to keep you informed on where things are headed and what every marketer needs to know to reach audiences where and how they’re viewing video media.

View one or all of our on-demand recorded sessions from Connected TV Unplugged 2021!