Opinion: How advertisers and marketers can benefit from CTV this festive season?

Excitement for the festive season is reaching fever pitch. We are eagerly awaiting the Diwali fireworks as much as everyone is getting ready to snap up the best discounts of the year. In the last 12 months, industries from FMCG to auto have dedicated months of planning to maximize engagement throughout this festive season, where record-setting numbers are anticipated from shoppers across the country.

TV is expected to see the same success. The appliances and consumer electronics industry expects around 18-20% value-driven growth this festive season, aided by the Cricket World Cup. Coinciding with the festival’s kick-off, content publishers are equally eager to capture their share of eyeballs with line-ups of premium shows ready to entertain the whole family.

This anticipated abundance of attention is also why brands and marketers consider the season the golden opportunity. The season is the prime time to capture engaged audiences and advertisers are on the hunt for the best way to make the most of what this year’s festivities have to offer, setting their sights on finding where their target audience is likely to engage with them the most.

In a country with more than 759 million active online monthly users, it’s no surprise that many Indian consumers turn to their devices to be entertained. Whether it’s their mobile phones, tablets, or TVs, online is where the audience will be, and what makes it the ideal place advertisers in India should also look to.

In a recent Samsung Ads survey, it was found that brands that advertise on streaming platforms are perceived to be three times more relevant, premium, and unique than those brands seen in non-streaming, traditional environments. The festive opportunity is extremely important for brands looking to make a comeback from a challenging first half of the year and why advertisers should be doubling down on connected TV to infuse their highly engaged target audience with positive sentiments.

TV viewership peaks during the Festive season

Alongside consumer’s heightened shopping intentions during the festival, time spent huddled together around the heart of the home, the TV, is also a seasonal tradition. 

With shopping intent expected to surge, TV viewership expectations are equally optimistic and CTV will be no exception. On Samsung Smart TVs across India, streaming dominated total TV viewing in H1 2023 with 88% predominantly streaming over traditional linear viewing. So, with more people turning to CTV, marketers looking to use this channel to capture more eyeballs than the rest of the year can expect a highly lucrative few months ahead. However, only by developing a comprehensive understanding of the benefits of CTV, will they see success during this year’s celebrations. 

Reach high-value audiences with precision targeting

To capitalize on this shift, advertisers need to broaden their understanding of their target audience by analyzing their viewing preferences including where they spend the most time on their TVs, and which content type they watch the most.

This is especially crucial to know during festival season when viewership surges and reaches record highs. By first grasping how target audiences interact with their TVs and how these trends vary during festivities, advertisers can then marry CTV’s reach with digital capabilities like precision targeting, ensuring ads reach the right viewers at the right time. And this can start with automatic content recognition (ACR) technology. 

ACR insights show that 79% of streamers on Samsung Smart TVs are flocking to AVOD (advertising-based video on demand) and FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) to find their most-loved content - meaning viewers are more receptive to adverts than in previous years.

ACR can also be leveraged to reach audiences who have engaged with your key competitors' advertising. This technique is called competitor conquesting. Using ACR, advertisers can target audiences who have been exposed to their competitors' linear advertising and retarget them across Samsung Smart TVs to drive return on their own ROI. 

Ability to retarget across device

Year-on-year, the digital population continues to rapidly grow in India and the online retail space is growing in its competitiveness as the battle for ‘checkout clicks’ rages on. 

The key to capturing this highly driven and attentive audience against competitors is using data to understand today’s digitally savvy shoppers. One benefit of leveraging this data for marketers is the ability to remarket consumers from the web to TV. 

This process allows advertisers to re-engage consumers that have visited your website across any device, and retarget them on CTV. So, when consumers are spending more time online shopping, looking for seasonal recipes, or on the hunt for discounts during festivals, advertisers can retarget these high-value shoppers on the biggest screen in the house to drive increased consideration and purchase.

In a first-of-its-kind partnership in India, Kohler India, partnered with Samsung Ads to retarget audiences who had visited their own website on the big screen (2m impressions). This bold new approach to CTV advertising helped Kohler increase consideration and drive purchase intent amongst high-value audiences with impact.

Why CTV is driving performance 

Underpinning this success is the use of unparalleled data-driven insights - an advertiser's greatest tool. With this comes the ability to make fully informed decisions to maximize campaigns and their ROI during and after the festival. Alongside invaluable insights into viewer preferences and behaviors, this data can also shed light on ad performance - allowing for real-time optimization of ad campaigns. 

Marketers can measure impressions, conversion rates, duration of time viewed, and more by using this innovative approach which enables a level of agility and adaptability that marketers crave and is essential in a dynamic market like India. 

Engagement with CTV content is phenomenally high, driving an average 95% video completion rate. So, whether it's audience engagement capabilities, cross-device reach, or data-driven insights, connected TV advertising can be a game-changer for advertising professionals seeking success during this year’s festival season in India. 

This authored piece on how advertisers and marketers can benefit from CTV ahead of festival is penned by Prabhvir Sahmey, Senior Director at Samsung Ads India.