As technological advances continue to accelerate, it’s challenging for marketers to keep pace with how tech is transforming the advertising world.
But Innovid is here to help. We are publishing this blog post to alert you to 10 key trends shaping TV advertising in 2024.
This post examines the crumbling of the cookie, the powerful potential of AI, how technology has turned the ad server into a data-generating juggernaut, and much more. Here are our top 10 TV advertising trends for 2024:
- Finding sweet alternatives to cookies
- Closing the gap between ad measurement and optimization
- Are you prepared for TV’s 100% digital future?
- Creative versioning at scale in CTV gets easier
- Accelerating the path-to-purchase on CTV
- Bringing AI into advertising
- Giving less attention to attention metrics
- Understanding this is not your father’s ad server
- Realizing the value of converged TV measurement in a currency-obsessed world
- Riding the continued rise of retail media
Read on to ready yourself for a transformative 2024.
1. Finding sweet alternatives to cookies
Google Chrome appears to be finally making good on its threat to sunset cookies by the end of this year. That’s a win for privacy advocates, but it might challenge some marketers. But effective ways to target and personalize your advertising messages still exist. Connected TV (CTV) is a shining example. As a cookieless medium capable of prioritizing personalization at scale, CTV serves as an excellent resource to accelerate post-cookie strategies. In the new year, we expect to see savvy marketers look to replicate CTV strategies across the advertising landscape, such as using non-PII data (e.g., weather, geolocation) and deploying in-unit interactive engagement (think QR codes) to personalize the experience for consumers.
2. Closing the gap between ad measurement and optimization
In 2024, 61.5% of advertisers plan to increase their spending on converged TV advertising, according to recent research from Innovid. In addition to investing more money in advertising, the respondents to our survey also invest significant time in their campaigns, with 56% of advertisers spending more than half of their time optimizing ad performance. Despite such significant investment, more than 60% believe their optimization efforts need to catch up. Part of the problem is that 63% of advertisers are measuring ad performance on one platform and optimizing on another — which leads to inefficiencies. In 2024, we predict that marketers will prioritize optimization by seeking to operationalize technology solutions, such as the Innovid platform (and its latest feature, Instant Optimization), which maximizes efficiency and effectiveness in measurement and optimization.
3. Making advertising more effective as the 100% digital TV future approaches
According to a 2023 analysis of Innovid’s 330 billion annual impressions, 51% of TV advertising impressions were via CTV. That percentage will leap higher this year. More people are watching digital TV in all its forms, and advertising dollars are following those eyeballs. CTV advertising will surpass $40.9 billion by 2027, according to eMarketer. The transformation in how consumers watch TV also represents a massive opportunity for advertisers to make their campaigns more effective. As platforms and publishers gain more insight into their viewers and can serve ads directly to desired audiences, TV advertising will be more targeted and effective. “Additionally, advanced and interactive creative executions, enabled by CTV, are powerful,” says Dave Helmreich, CCO, Innovid. “We found a 600% lift in consumer engagement with the advanced creative executions that are enabled by connected and digital TV.”
4. Optimizing media and creative
Optimizing the media in an ad campaign — and doing it continuously and in real-time — is a crucial pillar for getting the most out of your advertising dollar. But advertisers shouldn’t overlook creative optimization. Ignore the perception that optimizing creative is difficult. It’s not. And it can be done at scale. In fact, Innovid’s framework enables the construction of thousands of versions of creative that run based on data signals, such as time of day, weather, geolocation, and more. “In 2024, advertisers will place greater emphasis on creative optimization as the true driver of outcomes — creating customized and personalized advertising experiences that drive actions including conversions,” says Stacey Reney, VP-Marketing, Innovid.
5. Accelerating the path to purchase on CTV
What’s the next frontier in retail media? According to eMarketer, 57% of advertising professionals say that “shoppable video content” is what’s next in retail media. Although consumers have yet to fully embrace shopping via the TV, this will start changing in the coming year. As the worlds of retail and CTV continue to converge, advertisers who leverage shoppable ad formats will succeed in influencing consumer decisions — and drive tangible outcomes for their businesses. “For many advertisers, CTV’s role within the media mix has traditionally focused on awareness, but the technology is in place today to drive outcomes at scale,” says Nicki Spear, Senior Director-Strategic Accounts, Innovid.
6. Bringing AI Into Advertising
“Humanity sits at the center of creative, and AI is poised to expand that humanity on a larger scale,” says Blair Robertson, CTO of InnovidXP, Innovid. “When it comes to AI’s use within the TV ecosystem, we’re very much still in a test and learn phase.” In 2024, Innovid anticipates that we will start seeing AI evolve as a critical component within creative workflows, campaign insights, and activations at both brands and advertising agencies. AI has been a topic of conversation for years, and today, advertisers are expecting tech and agency partners to implement it within their strategic efforts on their behalf. In 2024, we can expect agency partners to accelerate their AI initiatives and integrations to support the future of efficient and effective advertising.
7. Giving less attention to attention metrics
While conversations around attention metrics continue, whether or not a consumer has “paid attention” to an ad does not define campaign effectiveness – and in an environment that has seen significant investment, such metrics shouldn't be the main focus when measuring performance in CTV. “In the new year, we can expect to see advertisers not only come to the realization that there are other ways to measure campaigns, but that there are better methods like interactive ads that actually give insight to outcomes without question,” says Dan Mouradian, VP-Global Client Solutions, Innovid.
8. Understanding this is not your father’s ad server
Two things about ad servers will become even more apparent in 2024. The first is the technological sophistication of today’s ad servers. The modern ad server is like an iPhone – users depend on their smartphones in the same way that advertisers rely on their data-driven ad servers. The second is independence: For an ad server to survive in today’s competitive market, it must remain independent – making the best decisions on behalf of the customer while ensuring transparency and trust as a neutral third party. We’ve already seen the importance of independence, with Amazon planning to shutter its ad server this year. Overall, in 2024, ad servers will be seen as more than tools for counting clicks and impressions: they will be appreciated as a critical pathway to transforming everyday advertising into direct value.
9. Moving TV advertising toward more accurate measurement
The concept of “currency” in advertising is closely tied with linear TV. As television approaches its 100% digital future, this concept will continue to grow less relevant for media planners and strategists. Instead, as the measurement of TV advertising performance and outcomes becomes increasingly more precise, TV ads will not be judged on who might be watching — but by who is actually taking action because of them. With this future firmly in mind, Innovid is confident that accurate, actionable, timely measurement is what advertisers want. As Innovid CCO Dave Helmreich wrote recently, “As a cross-platform measurement provider, with InnovidXP built on top of this foundation, we are uniquely positioned to help brands and agencies gauge performance against their unique business goals, and help publishers prove the value of their inventory.”
10. Riding the continued rise of retail media
Continuing to grow at more than 20% a year, advertising spending on retail media is projected to surpass $106 billion by 2027, according to eMarketer. Increasingly, retail media networks are interconnected with CTV, and this evolution presents a growing opportunity for advertisers. Deploying CTV, retail marketers can create unified campaigns that are designed to deliver increased scale, engagement, and measurement — all on the biggest screen in the home. “Seventy-five percent of our Target guests either use the Target app, or are using Target.com as they're browsing in-store,” Ami Lathia, Director of Off Platform Ad Products, Roundel, said at Advertising Week New York. “And so, as these consumer behaviors are evolving when it comes to browsing or purchasing a product, it becomes extremely important that retail media networks also continue to evolve in their offerings to meet the needs in more of an omnichannel manner. And I would say CTV is the rising star here and one of the many offerings that we have in place to be able to reach your consumers where they are spending time.”
Check back with us a year from now to see how our prognostications fared. In the meantime, learn more about how Innovid brings you the future of TV advertising, today.
