Go Addressable’s third-annual summit this year focused on discussing some of the biggest topics of addressable TV advertising; how the medium has progressed, what is needed from the industry for total convergence, the importance of authenticated identity, and where the future is headed.

Addressable TV advertising has been growing steadily in usage as advertisers better understand its capabilities and potential. In fact, during her opening remarks Amy Leifer, Chief Advertising Sales Officer at DIRECTV Advertising, shared custom research from Go Addressable and Advertiser Perceptions on how advertiser intent to spend on addressable has grown consistently over the last three years from 34% in 2021 to 40% today! Next year, 2 out of 5 advertisers say they will spend more on addressable than they did this year.

One thing was clear though, as the industry moves towards building a better ecosystem for buyers, sellers, and consumers we must continue to keep focused on the future if we really want to Go Addressable. As the event’s keynote speaker Rishad Tobaccowala shared, the future cannot exist in the containers of the past so the time for the industry to act is now.

It’s All Coming Together: The New (and Improved) Addressable Buying Landscape

Speakers: Jason Brown, Spectrum Reach (Moderator), Cullen Deady, PMX Lift, Lisa Giacosa, Spark Foundry, Jean-Mark Papin, Horizon, and Brad Stockton, Dentsu

Our first panel featured executives across four major agencies, providing a temperature check on the state of addressable adoption and what, if any, barriers still remain. The good news: there has been steady growth in addressable TV advertising, with an increased acknowledgement of its effectiveness and relative cost efficiency. All panelists seemed to agree that one of the most important actions needed is to debunk the myths that marketers might believe about addressable’s effectiveness. Education is needed to help brand marketers understand the true eCPM of addressable. It can actually make media dollars go further since it is more effective and can help manage frequency and drive incremental reach. The truth is that addressable offers more in terms of reaching more targeted audiences and helping to avoid wasted impressions. Being able to help prove the real effectiveness of addressable TV advertising will help push it forward.

Another important factor is making it easier for buyers to transact across sellers. The ultimate goal is a holistic approach to planning, buying, and measurement that truly reflects the way that consumers are now viewing premium video content, moving beyond legacy media modeling.

There is so much opportunity for advertisers when it comes to addressable TV. A key area of focus for Go Addressable is to knock down the perceived barriers for marketers through research and education. In fact, based on a recent survey, the number of advertisers who are satisfied with addressable TV has increased steadily in the past three years. With dedicated work that number should continue to improve.

Convergence in Action: Where Addressable TV Fits In

Speakers: Kevin Arrix, DISH Media (Moderator), Stephanie Foster, Yahoo!, Angela Girardin, Nielsen One Ads, Andrea Remoundos, GroupM, and Sara Wallace, FreeWheel

The second panel of the day tackled the convergence of addressable that we are seeing in an increasingly complex world with different models and buying types across various video types. Like the marketer panel, they agreed that the industry needs better uniformity to ensure that advertisers can buy and manage addressable campaigns and use it successfully in their media strategies.

The real solution for full-fledged convergence is making it easier for advertisers to have a cohesive view of their video investments. Despite all the progress, silos remain; we are still seeing that many companies are organized in a way where the CTV and Linear TV teams sit separately. There is work being done to encourage the two to come together so that these channels can sit alongside one another. Allowing for more programmatic buying of addressable will also provide more flexibility, transparency, and uniformity so clients can better optimize.

Enabling more inventory to be programmatically bought will help bring the teams together and improving measurement for addressable TV will drive it forward and allow us to understand the impact addressable TV has more holistically.

Go Addressable is committed to helping improve measurement and help provide better proof of ROI in order to encourage advertiser adoption. Currently, the organization works with the top 20 attribution vendors in the market as a way to develop better offerings. As a result, 59% of advertisers report seeing an improvement in measurement in addressable TV.

Data: Addressable’s Superpower and How to Maximize It

Speakers: Larry Allen, Comcast Advertising (Moderator), Kimberly Gilberti, Experian, Bill Harvey, RMT Inc., Emily Kistner, Adstra, and Jason Manningham, Blockgraph

When it comes to addressable TV, data is really the fuel that powers it, so it is critical that advertisers start with the best data input in order to get the best output. As Bill Harvey said, addressable is a very powerful tool that research has found delivers a higher ROI than linear alone given its precise targeting, reinforcing its value as a tactic in effective media plans.

The industry is working to provide interoperability across data and identity partners so that advertisers can have an accurate view of their audiences across the entire campaign lifecycle from planning, to buying, to finally measuring. Data accuracy is an imperative to allow advertisers to leverage data in the best ways and to make meaningful connections with their consumers.

Looking ahead to 2024

Go Addressable is helping marketers and agencies understand the power of addressable TV advertising so they can truly harness it and use it to its fullest extent. During the event’s Fireside chat with Joe Keating from Hill’s Pet Nutrition, he shared how he has really leaned into addressable to help build the brand, better understand consumers, and reach the right audiences. He pointed out that more convergence will make it easier for other brands to see the value of addressable in their own strategies.

As Travis Scoles, SVP of Advanced Advertising at Paramount pointed out, waste is the enemy of addressable TV. Once buyers have a better grasp of its capabilities and how to use it in a full funnel marketing plan, the channel will be unstoppable. There are three key things that the industry must do for this to happen, and these are the areas that Go Addressable will be focused on in the next 12 months:

1. Provide clarity on the best practices of addressable to make it easier to engage and transact at every step.
2. Foster industry collaboration to drive addressable implementation.
3. Utilize research insights and case studies to showcase the merits of addressable advertising.

Thank you to all that joined us for Go Addressable Summit 2023: Building the Converged Addressable Future. Your participation and collaboration help us educate the industry and push the medium forward. To keep up to date with all the latest work we are doing, visit Insights – Go Addressable.

To watch the replay of the event, visit Go Addressable Summit 2023.

We’ll see you next year!

As the 2023 upfronts get underway, advertisers are once again faced with the challenge of reaching consumers and achieving optimal business results while balancing the growing array of television distribution formats in their media plans. With premium video content being consumed across various screens and fragmentation increasing, advertisers are looking to leverage data insights to target viewers with precision while maintaining the reach of traditional TV, using aggregated viewership insights, and with a commitment to protecting personal information. Addressable TV has reached critical mass, offering an effective solution that allows advertisers to reach specific audiences at scale with unprecedented precision. According to research commissioned with Advertiser Perceptions, 90% of agencies and marketers agree that Addressable TV is critical to the future of television advertising.

Despite the growing adoption of addressable advertising, many advertisers might not fully understand its benefits or use cases. But with media and marketing dollars under increased scrutiny, advertisers should consider the following four ways to incorporate addressable TV advertising into their upfront plans.

1. Complement Traditional TV Buys

Traditional TV still plays a pivotal role in many advertisers’ media strategies, and this is unlikely to change. Addressable TV advertising is a strategic tactic that can enhance linear TV campaigns by bridging gaps and providing better viewer experiences through more effective targeting and ad frequency management per household. By coupling the two, advertisers can extend the reach of their traditional linear TV strategy and drive incremental reach to consumers who may not have been exposed to their messaging. Incorporating addressable TV advertising into upfront planning in this way can help ensure valuable return on ad spend.

2. Unify Streaming and Linear Audiences

Addressability is not limited to linear TV advertising; it also can be used to serve targeted ads across set-top boxes, streaming platforms, or CTV devices. By using addressable, advertisers can improve audience targeting and measure reach across both linear and digital channels, which historically has been difficult. Addressable TV offers the opportunity to unify the two, creating a more audience-based approach and a better understanding of ROI.

3. Engage High-Intent Consumers with Relevant Messages

One of the most valuable applications of addressable TV advertising is its ability to identify and reach in-market households with a high likelihood of purchasing a specific product or service. Addressable TV provides privacy-focused ways to reach a specific audience using aggregated data. By using addressable TV advertising, advertisers can target specific creative or messaging to in-market households, which can drive conversion and enhance the customer experience. By incorporating addressable TV advertising into upfront planning, advertisers can engage with customers as they move through the consumer purchase funnel.

4. Close the Loop Between Media Exposure and Consumer Action

Addressable TV advertising can help close the loop between media exposure and consumer action with deterministic attribution and measurement. In a privacy-focused way, advertisers can target specific audience segments and limit the exposure of ads to households outside of those segments, reducing wasted impressions. With accurate attribution, advertisers can better plan and measure the impact of their TV investments.

Addressable TV is Ready to Go for the 2023 Upfronts

As advertisers’ needs continue to evolve, addressable TV advertising is playing a major role in the new TV landscape by providing improved targeting, measurement, and attribution capabilities. The tools and technology are available, and advertisers should take advantage of them by incorporating addressable into their overall TV strategy. The 2023 upfronts provide a massive opportunity for advertisers to embrace addressable TV advertising and achieve optimal results.

Resources for Going Addressable

Go Addressable has put together resources to accelerate adoption and help educate and enable advertisers wherever they are in their addressable TV journey. Visit the Content Hub to access the playbook, glossary, blogs, and other timely insights.

Today, audiences are consuming content everywhere and, on every device, causing viewership fragmentation and numerous choices for marketers. As marketers build their media plans, they are faced with determining the best way to reach their target audience. Online digital advertising has made a compelling case for reaching audiences but faces several challenges for marketers including lack of scale, reach and premium content. Addressable TV arguably provides the best of all worlds, utilizing aggregated and de-identified first party data, advertisers now have the ability to serve ads directly to the households they want to reach next to today’s most sought-after premium content at scale. As part of an ongoing series, we will be discussing the benefits of addressable TV and its positive impact on marketer’s media mix. First, we’ll examine how addressable TV offers precision audience targeting at scale in a safe, privacy-compliant way and why addressable TV is the best of all worlds.

The Connection To The Consumer

Video distribution platforms and today’s smart devices are a direct connection to the home, and therefore the consumer. This allows marketers to match specific approved viewership segments or custom target lists, through a trusted third party, with first party de-identified data. From a targeting perspective, that is incredibly powerful. It means an addressable enhanced TV campaign will have the reach and scale of television with the HH targeting capabilities.

With the death of cookies not far off, advertisers will be looking for ways to fill the void; addressable TV can be a big part of how that void gets filled. TV distributors provide marketers with a direct conduit to their best potential customer without reliance on cookies, MAIDs or other less-reliable identifiers.

The direct connection to all screens in the home at scale, in a privacy compliant way, is the backbone of TV distributor’s ability to provide addressable advertising using accurate data, methodology and delivery mechanisms.

Spectrum Reach’s Commitment to Customers

At Spectrum Reach we continue our commitment of advancing the addressable television landscape by evolving our technical infrastructure, improving workflows, and advancing census-based measurement solutions for our partners and media sales clients. Additionally, Spectrum Reach has made investments to help scale the addressable marketplace including Blockgraph, an identity solutions company, and, Comscore, who provided census-based measurement and analytics for the media industry. Finally, through Ampersand we are scaling the access to local addressable TV for advertisers… These and other investments have helped establish Spectrum Reach as one of the leaders in addressable advertising. Our participation in Go Addressable has highlighted the need for teamwork in the space and is helping to advance TV addressable by driving education and addressing issues facing the industry. Our commitment to addressable advertising is strong. Charter’s customer privacy policies exceed industry standards and are aligned with a promise to protect customer’s personal information.

Addressable TV offers truly unprecedented precision in audience targeting. By matching aggregated and de-identified first-party data sets with consumer data, distributors can generate census-level, privacy-compliant household data, providing unmatched targeting capabilities for marketers. With addressable TV, distributors can help brands deliver greater accuracy and increased reach through proven and scalable distribution platforms. Said another way, brands can finally take the best content on the planet and use it to Go Addressable.