Demand for connected TV (CTV) is growing across Asia-Pacific, but the lack of audience verification standards and viewability metrics remain key challenges that need to be resolved. Furthermore, media buyers need to better understand audience behaviour so they can reach valuable and engaged audiences, according to Juliette Stead, Telaria's Asia-Pacific vice president.

In this Q&A with ExchangeWire, Stead notes that having strong demographic targeting options can address some concerns around accuracy and wastage, but urges the need for programmatic buyers to be able to access premium CTV supply so they can grab the best ad opportunities.

Stead also outlines what broadcasters and publishers in Asia-Pacific need to keep in mind to better monetise their offerings amid growing CTV demand.

ExchangeWire: What kind of audience data and other data signals can CTV offer that traditional TV can't?

Juliette Stead: Connected TV equips brands with new levels of control and accuracy. We all know that traditional TV is fantastic at generating high reach and impact very quickly, but with that comes the very real risk of excessive frequency against the same audience. Connected TV provides the same impact opportunity for brands as traditional TV – it's still premium shows being watched on a big screen, delivered through an internet connection – but it also brings the benefit of frequency controls.

The IAB's newly introduced standardised Identifier for Advertising (IFA) allows for frequency capping in the absence of cookies and equips brands with the opportunity to stop throwing the same message at the same person beyond the desired level, which – for most brands – would constitute wastage.

Juliette Stead, APAC VP, Telaria

In addition to frequency controls, CTV also allows brands to target their advertising really effectively, either through the traditional TV approach of contextual targeting, such as specific shows, genres, and indicative audiences, or through data targeting, which is often enabled by publishers' login data.

The real-time, impression-based nature of CTV buys also allows for granular optimisation against performance metrics.

To sum up, connected TV brings together TV's clear benefits of brand marketing, with the digital enhancement of control and targeting.

In which Asia-Pacific markets are you seeing growing demand for CTV and how are advertisers tapping into this?

Demand for connected TV is growing across the entire region. In Australia and New Zealand, where we work with broadcasters such as Nine, Seven, Ten, TVNZ, and Mediaworks, advanced brands have been buying across connected TV for over 12 months.

Connected TV has quickly been recognised as a great medium for high-impact, brand-safe campaigns. Southeast Asia's demand for connected TV is also growing rapidly. The region's fragmented nature, in terms of providers, languages, and devices, means that the connected TV adoption is not yet running in parallel with Australia and New Zealand. However, I have absolutely no doubt that will change very soon.

What should broadcasters and publishers in the region, including traditional TV operators, keep in mind to better monetise their offerings amid growing CTV demand?

A great user experience is paramount to the long-term success of any broadcaster or publisher. Broadcasters need to invest in technology to ensure a strong user experience. Without an audience, they won't have anything to monetise.

Server-side ad insertion (SSAI) plays a key role in creating a seamless transition between ad break and content, especially in a connected TV environment. It also creates efficiencies for publishers from an operational perspective, which is hugely important when they are managing up to 20 different connected TV platforms. Tools such as those offered by Telaria also can be tapped to ensure a user doesn't see the same ads back-to-back, which is essential to the user's experience and the value of the activity to the brand.

Brands now require full transparency and control – hence, the boom of programmatic buying – so data and information for targeting and reporting purposes are key to the success of CTV.

Buyers are now looking to publishers to provide this data, which generates a great opportunity for publishers, especially those with active login data. Use of the right deal types is also essential, since many buyers look to run activity across multiple supply sources and aim to manage controls and performance holistically, rather than publisher by publisher.

Broadcasters also need to recognise audience expectations. Viewers want to get hold of the latest episode as quickly as possible, so if a show is available to a U.S. audience, an Australian audience needs to be able to access it as soon as possible. Any delays will lead to audiences exploring other avenues to access their favourite shows, for example, with VPN access to blocked geos or pirating. The ability to binge on full series and even to preview an episode online before linear broadcast also go a long way to engaging audiences at scale, and creating strong opportunities for publishers.

What challenges do broadcasters and content providers face monetising their CTV offerings?

The lack of standardised audience verification, for example Nielsen DAR, creates a lack of consistency that digital buyers who buy video across mobile and desktop have come to expect. Strong demographic targeting options can help combat these concerns around accuracy and wastage, but the lack of consistent measurement can certainly be a challenge and needs to be resolved.

Similarly – though, in my opinion, frustratingly – the lack of viewability measurement across CTV can deter some brands. Viewability has never been available across traditional TV and this has never stopped brands from investing. However, because CTV is bought using digital metrics, there is often a viewability rating box that needs to be checked. When viewability vendors create a methodology that can work across CTV, everybody will see that the ads are always 100% viewable.

Another challenge from a programmatic perspective is audience behaviour, such as the time of day where you see most viewing, which often flies in the face of programmatic buying trends. Buyers are most active at the beginning of the day, trying to achieve their daily impression goal as quickly as possible; whereas audiences are most active from around 7pm until midnight. Education and insights in this context are key, so that buyers can reach valuable and engaged audiences watching premium, brand-safe content, simply by adjusting their set-up within the DSP, such as through time targeting, to suit the supply type.

How quickly can metrics feed back data and identify under- or over-valued inventory, so advertisers can make more informed choices about their CTV buys? And are you seeing Asia-Pacific marketers using such data signals to tweak their media buys?

The main metrics used by buyers are completion rates, which are often used as an indicator of engagement levels, and audience reach, which is essentially optimised via frequency-capped impression levels against the most relevant content.

Buyers are able to access these insights in real time, and optimise accordingly, whilst the activity is live. Connected TV is essentially internet-delivered television, with viewing heavily influenced by the program schedule. We see activities move from provider to provider based on programs getting significant attention, with brands looking for a close association with the most talked about shows and the most engaged audiences.

How should programmatic TV be further improved over the next one to two years?

In the context of programmatically traded CTV, as opposed to programmatic linear or traditional TV, measurement has to be solved – both in terms of audience measurement and viewability measurement.

These are the main barriers to budgets being released across the board. Transparency, standardisation, and consistency are also key, so show and audience insights for targeting and reporting are valuable, and consistency wherever possible from publisher to publisher makes it easier for buyers to access this supply at scale.

As I mentioned before, programmatic buyers need to be able to easily access premium CTV supply, so time of day functionality within the DSP is essential for a buyer to ensure they don't miss out on the best opportunity, simply because their impression quota was absorbed earlier in the day by less valuable, less rewarding, and less relevant audiences provided by a different supplier.

This year, we worked closely with Seven West Media across their live sports offering, which included the Australian Open, the Winter Olympics, and the Commonwealth Games. This live supply attracted large audiences and provided brands with an exciting opportunity, which they were able to access programmatically.

Consumers like OTT services such as Netflix because there are no ads interrupting their viewing. How then can advertisers tap CTV in such environments and what should they do to deliver a better user experience?

Actually, the IAB's recent study 'The OTT Co-Viewing Experience: 2017', revealed that OTT co-viewers spend more than double the amount of time watching ad-supported content than they do on subscription services with no ads. This indicates that viewers don't necessarily view an AVOD (ad-support video-on-demand) environment as inferior to an SVOD (subscriber video-on-demand) environment.

User experience, as previously discussed, must be the number one priority in order to engage, retain, and build audiences. A great quality and highly relevant ad experience can be delivered by using the best tech partners and leveraging strong data insights. It's also essential that ad load is controlled and the ratio of ads to content delivers a great experience for both the user and the brand.