Author: John Vilade, Head of Sales, Premion

The 2022 holiday shopping season is upon us! This year, U.S. holiday retail sales are expected to reach $1.3 trillion, a 3.3% increase over 2021, with holiday ecommerce growth expected to increase 15.5% reaching $236 billion, according to Insider Intelligence. While the season is projected to be a healthy one, brands and retailers will need to cater to more budget conscious consumers amidst inflationary pressures and adapt to a changing shopping season — one that starts earlier, is flatter, and has less concentrated ad spending during the Cyber Five period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.

With the proliferation of streaming TV viewers, savvy advertisers are turning up the dial to reach the highly engaged Connected TV (CTV) audience. In fact, a May 2022 IAB report finds that three out of four buyers labeled CTV a “must buy” as CTV enables them to leverage first-party brand data, location data, and shopping data in ways they can’t with traditional linear TV.

Data-driven targeting capabilities in CTV allow marketers to optimize ad spending to meet changing consumer needs and local market conditions — and to ensure that their ad dollars are spent reaching high-value audiences to drive measurable outcomes.

Advertisers are not only realizing the significant shift as to where to reach their consumers but are relying far more heavily on the accelerant of CTV in their total media mix through TV reach extension, precision targeting, attributable outcomes and brand lift.

And it’s not just for TV buyers looking to extend reach, as more performance marketers are turning to CTV for effective targeting in the wake of consumer privacy changes. In fact, our 2022 CTV/OTT survey found that 56% of advertisers say the ability to precision target audiences is the top reason for increasing CTV/OTT spending in 2022.

Here are three ways that advertisers can tap into the precision targeting capabilities in CTV advertising to drive holiday shopping success:

Reach Precise In-market Audiences: The evolution in CTV targeting allows advertisers to reach precise, in-market audiences. Brands and retailers can blend mass reach with in-market intender targeting to reach viewers throughout the funnel — or find relevant audiences by specific behaviors and interests. With this approach, advertisers are using precise data options to find their intended buying audience.

Leverage Sophisticated Audience-First Targeting: For advertisers interested in reaching audiences with personalities and lifestyles that align with their brand, they now have access to a more sophisticated, persona-based targeting approach with our Audience First targeting packages. Specifically, we’ve hand-picked audience segments to build advanced consumer audience personas based on — not only direct interests — but also adjacent interests and behaviors that align with those audience personas, such as budget-conscious shoppers, luxury shoppers, outdoor adventurers or millennial-minded. This can unlock additional, relevant layers of targeting that can capture potential customers missed by a narrower targeting approach.

Deliver highly localized and personalized CTV ads: New innovations make CTV ads more dynamic and personalized — and more relevant, especially during a crowded time of holiday promotions. With the use of dynamic creative ads, we can transform CTV ads to deliver messaging unique to each individual household with localized and interactive enhancements. Advertisers can localize an ad with scannable QR codes, nearest location, inventory availability and more. This adds an extra layer of ad relevancy to drive advertiser results with specific localized and personalized call to actions. For instance, a retailer can embed a promo code in their CTV ads to promote specific holiday and seasonal offers.

With the advancements in CTV advertising, marketers can take advantage of a wider array of precision targeting as well as localized and personalized capabilities to deliver a highly relevant streaming TV advertising experience to drive holiday performance outcomes.

To learn more about Premion’s Audience-First offering, let’s have a conversation.

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