• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, November 6, 2024

CTV and OTT offer plenty of positives for brands -- including business outcomes and reach -- yet persistent problems remain, according to a new survey by Advertiser Perceptions and local/regional streaming ad-sales group Premion.

Nearly 40% of those surveyed cite a lack of transparency among streaming platforms. And nearly 40% say "fragmentation" has another problem -- too many CTV platforms and providers.

Another persistent issue is managing frequency issues across all publisher platforms, with 37% of respondents citing this issue, while another 33% are concerned about measurement issues.

The main positive results in ad spend for CTV/OTT are as follows, according to the study:

1. Achieves brand awareness and performance goals (41%)
2. Highly engaged opt-in audience comes with CTV/OTT (40%)
3. Precision audience targeting (38%)
4. Extended reach for linear TV (36%)

The survey also examined CTV/OTT competition against social media, and found that 53% of respondents believe CTV/OTT is more effective in ensuring their messaging is in a “brand-safe” environment, with 45% saying they believe CTV/OTT and social media are "comparable."

When it comes to mixed media campaigns, 51% of executives say CTV/OTT is used both as an extension to linear TV buys and a complement to digital media buyers. Breaking down this data point, 29% tout CTV/OTT mostly as an extension to linear TV, while 21% see it mostly as a complement to digital media.

This year, executives say 50% of the media buys for CTV/OTT are conducted through programmatic platforms, compared to 45% a year ago.

But programmatic buying of CTV/OTT has challenges versus that of direct buying with platforms.

While overall results show 41% of respondents had a good "brand-safety" CTV/OTT experience when it came to overall deal-making, 32% say they have concerns about brand-safety issues when buying programmatically.

Also, while executives (41%) say campaigns achieve a positive overall buying experience with CTV/OTT in terms of awareness/performance goals, 41% also say there are measuring/tracking issues with key performance indicators (KPI)

Advertiser Perceptions’ anonymous online survey was produced in April 2024 among 150 ad agency or brand-side marketing executives responsible for spending a minimum of $250,000 annually on advertising.