There are growing concerns among advertisers around factors, such as measurement, reach, and brand safety, as we move toward a world without third-party cookies, according to research from Mediaocean. However, more positively, a number of advertisers see this as an opportunity to innovate and improve existing methods.
The survey of more than 250 leaders at advertising agencies, media providers, and tech companies found that 46% of respondents have concerns about being unable to manage reach and frequency across connected TV (CTV) and other digital channels. Moreover, 43% have seen a decline in their ability to measure campaign effectiveness. Perhaps even more worryingly, around 96% of those surveyed expect their concerns around brand safety to either remain the same or increase this year.
Despite those worries, advertisers are generally quite positive about how these concerns may be addressed in the coming year, with 60% of respondents expecting improvements in integrated media planning and execution to be the most impactful innovation, followed by non-cookie methods (57%), and CTV measurement and planning (45%).
“2021 brought an acceleration of media fragmentation, as we saw long-standing tools for audience IDs crumble, while consumers migrated en masse to cross-platform TV viewing,” said Aaron Goldman, Chief Marketing Officer at Mediaocean. “However, as this survey signals, a majority of industry leaders felt that this year yielded significant progress against these challenges, thanks to new tech, evolving industry standards, and a greater emphasis on unified campaign execution. As we head into 2022, it’s heartening to see our market adapt and evolve into one that’s more effective and resilient – with leadership taking the inherent challenges in stride.”
Another big talking point of the survey was CTV, and a desire for advertisers to capitalise on the channel’s huge growth over the last few years by increasing investment. More than 70% of respondents said that they plan to increase their CTV advertising investment.
At the same time, however, this increased investment brings about another worry for advertisers. 81% of survey-takers said they were concerned about the chance that there may be an increase in fraud within CTV, due to the amount of money that is set to come flooding in.
“As we turn the page on 2021, the advertising industry’s collective focus has swung decisively toward the challenges posed by the rapidly fragmenting and evolving TV landscape. Like the majority of those surveyed in our research, we are laser focused on meeting these challenges and are excited for the future,” said John Nardone, President at Mediaocean. “Marketers, their agencies, and technology partners are already advancing on unified solutions, as our study makes clear. Much of the required integration work is already in progress, so 2022 will see real innovation and significant progress as we bring new capabilities to market.”
