Taking place this year at the Governor's Residence at Fort Mason in San Francisco, the TV of Tomorrow Show hosted its legendary annual 2 day summit and Origin was proud to be invited to partake in one of its day one panels.
The discussion that our (in)famously outspoken CEO Fred Godfrey joined alongside Adobe, Freewheel, Paramount, DirecTV and Innovid was both fiery and important - Are new ad formats brining in revenue?
Here are three key take-aways from what emerged during this CTV advertising discussion -
TECH
Any new CTV ad formats that are brought to market can no longer require a heavy technical lift. Publishers are tired of hearing the 'our SDK only requires 2 lines of code' and are becoming increasingly resistant to the pitch. For this reason, coupled with the growing need by media buyers for the campaigns they run to achieve the scale/reach they need, new formats need to be a 'zero-code' offering.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
While its arguably the case that new CTV ad formats are as valuable for media sellers looking for ways to differentiate their inventory from others, it appears that there exists a conflict of interest between the sellers who want to offer something unique and their ops teams who enjoy how easy 15s and 30s 'shipping containers' are to traffic and manage. In other words, it appears as if there might be internal issues that could be hampering progress, innovation and the adoption of new ad formats.
RISK V REWARD
With traditionally performance-based mediums starting to show diminishing returns, media buyers are becoming more comfortable with investing in new ad formats. However, they need to solve a very specific problem for them and need to be easy to understand to execute.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The last question we were all asked by the moderator was a simple one - if you had a crystal ball, what do we see the future for CTV advertising looking like? For us here at Origin, the answer was simple: for as long as we insist on coming up with new CTV ad formats that exist within the 80 year old ad break model and 15 and 30s 'shipping container' ad spots, we are simply putting band-aids on broken legs. They may be iterative, but what's needed is reinvention - starting with going 'scorched earth' on this 8 decade old discipline and thinking again from the ground up.
And if you're familiar with the three CTV ad formats we've brought to market over the last 5 years and take a step back - you might see how together they prove that this can be done.
Not familiar - here you go: https://www.corp.originmedia.tv/performance-ctv-solutions
Origin is an award-winning creative technology company whose zero code TV advertising solutions have reshaped the way marketers captivate and communicate with consumers inside and outside the home.
Fusing pioneering CTV ad formats with proprietary technology and direct media partnerships that span the streaming ecosystem, Origin's products are embraced by brands, agencies and platforms who are looking to deliver a truly personal storytelling experience to their audience.
Founded by media veterans Fred Godfrey and Stephen Strong, Origin is driven by a relentless belief that the time has come to challenge tradition and enrage the status quo. Learn more at www.originmedia.tv.