As IPL 2024 heads to the final stages, Alokananda Chakraborty caught up with Nikhil Kumar, chief growth officer, mediasmart, to understand what advertising strategies work best on the small screen. Edited excerpts:
What is the best strategy to maximise ROI during the IPL?
It’s important for brands to understand which audience they want to target and where. If cricket is where your most relevant audience is then advertising strategy can go far and beyond on CTV. It’s important to begin with the right audience targeting. CTV advertising allows for precision targeting where brands can segment by demographics, location, and even screen size.
This helps to ensure that the ads can reach the most relevant audience at the right time. Next, leveraging the right personalised and interactive ad formats also play a significant role, as they increase viewer engagement and recall. With the advent of GenAI greater personalisation is possible to reach these viewers. Brands can automate and create vernacular ads based on a viewer’s location, or household type so that the ads are likely to resonate and prompt action.
Smart QR codes can also be used to create powerful redirections and boost action. Timing is another critical factor. Placing ads during high-engagement moments, such as strategic timeouts or innings breaks, maximises visibility when viewership peaks. Consistent ad exposure throughout the IPL season reinforces brand messaging, enhancing recall and impact.
Additionally, leveraging real-time analytics allows brands to track performance and adjust their campaigns dynamically, optimising ad spend and improving outcomes. Using frequency capping is crucial, considering that users are often present across multiple OTT platforms. Repetitive exposure to the same ads can lead to user fatigue, diminishing engagement levels.
Therefore, implementing frequency capping helps manage ad exposure, ensuring that users are not bombarded with identical ads across various platforms, thus preserving engagement.
It’s important to also remember that IPL is not just about watching cricket on television, linear or CTV. During cricket season, organic searches for cricket matches and scores go up, cricket fans download more fantasy gaming apps, or cricket fans come together at restaurants to enjoy live streaming together. So, advertisers need to create smart segments and the focus needs to shift to how to reach the right audience, instead of where the ad is shown. This means an advertiser is able to cut across mediums and even genres to programmatically cater to these audiences and have a unifying reach.
But isn’t there a lot of advertiser clutter on IPL?
It’s important for brands to understand that if they are looking to do CTV campaigns, they have to be truly CTV-first. This means the same advertising that’s done on linear television can’t be replicated on digital TV. Advertisers need to ask themselves why they’re doing CTV advertising – is it for exposure, engagement, or an action. This will help to determine the right formats suitable for the CTV ecosystem, such as interactive ads, QR codes, pause ads – which help to break the clutter.
Have OTT platforms proved impactful in enhancing brand visibility and engagement this IPL season?
IPL is one of the most-watched sporting events in India and enjoys popularity both on linear broadcast as well as on OTT platforms due to the massive audience it attracts. CTV viewers are typically more engaged, watching content on larger screens with better quality, leading to higher ad recall and engagement rates. We’ve seen in our first-party study on CTV consumption in India that 9 in 10 viewers of CTV recall being exposed to ads; while 81% of those exposed to ads claim that the ads influenced them. Our research also revealed that 31% are likely to buy the product after seeing the ad on CTV & Mobile.
Due to the precision targeting on CTV, advertisers are able to reach the most relevant viewers, enhancing engagement. Moreover, CTV advertising supports interactive and personalised ad formats, which increase viewer interaction and recall. There are also niche technological innovations available on CTV that allow brands to do more with their advertising and improve engagement and action. Household Sync technology on CTV, for instance, allows brands to target viewers in the same household and retarget them to improve brand recall and conversions. Furthermore, Engagement Sync technology enhances targeting capabilities by utilizing data from user engagement on one device to retarget them with relevant content on other devices. This unified approach ensures consistency and coherence in the advertising journey, regardless of the device used, thereby maximizing engagement and conversion opportunities.
What kind of innovations in ad formats and placements have worked best in enhancing engagement during the IPL broadcast on OTT?
For brands, it’s about reaching the right users to leverage IPL as a time to enhance the level of brand engagement, recognition, and sales. CTV as a medium for advertising offers a variety of ad formats that brands can deploy in their marketing efforts. The Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) technology on CTV allows for real-time insertion of ads based on viewer data and behavior. This personalization ensures that the ads are more relevant to the audience, thereby increasing the likelihood of engagement.
Interactive ads, for instance, are great for generating brand engagement. This can be either through creating an animated background where products and the main messages of the ad gain a dedicated spot, or through the progress bar sync format, where the product or service becomes a part of the video. Brands can also leverage Smart QR codes to create powerful redirections and boost action. Ultimately, it’s also important to cut across screens and genres to have a unifying reach. Brands should look at integrating the consumer’s journeys across connected screens and drive action
on app, DOOH, and in-stores.
How have technologies such as AI enhanced viewer experience for ads?
AI algorithms analyse viewer data, including demographics, viewing history, and preferences, to deliver personalised ad experiences. Viewers are more likely to engage with ads that are relevant to their interests, leading to a more satisfying viewing experience. AI enables dynamic ad insertion, allowing advertisers to deliver targeted ads in real-time based on factors such as location, time of day, and viewer demographics. This ensures that viewers see ads that are timely and relevant, enhancing the overall viewing experience.
AI-powered recommendation engines can also suggest relevant content, including ads, based on viewer behavior and preferences. This ensures that viewers are presented with ads that align with their interests, increasing the likelihood of engagement.
More futuristic cases include, AI-powered voice and image recognition technologies enable interactive ad experiences, allowing viewers to engage with ads using voice commands or by interacting with on-screen elements. These will create a more immersive and engaging viewing experience, increasing viewer satisfaction.
Finally, what metrics should be used to assess the effectiveness of OTT advertising campaigns during IPL?
CTV advertising on OTTs offer more to brands to target and measure the effectiveness of the campaigns, going beyond just recall and purchase. Some key metrics that can be measured are CTR and VTR, which give insights into how engaged a viewer was with the ads. Then, they can also measure in-app events for both CTV and mobile apps instantly, in addition to tracking foot traffic. Brands can also measure incremental lift in sales. Moving beyond traditional KPIs, CTV advertising can also help brands understand overall brand lift. At mediasmart, we have taken brand lift studies with Kantar for our clients that show that advertising on CTV not only significantly enhances brand awareness but also positively influences purchase intent, message association, and brand favorability.