Power, Performance & Possibilities: The CTV Advertiser Landscape In India

Gavin Buxton Oct 27, 2022

Although Connected TV (CTV) is relatively nascent in India, increased content consumption during the pandemic coupled with greater access to Smart TVs and more affordable data plans have pushed CTV to an inflection point. According to Dentsu India, digital advertising in India is expected to equal traditional television advertising and may even outpace it by 2023.

Compared to traditional satellite television, CTV audiences are young, urban adults who actively engage with a range of platforms and apps. For publishers, this means their audience is digitally savvy, with high expectations for video performance. For advertisers, CTV presents a golden opportunity to reach highly engaged, digital-first viewers on the big screen. As digital video continues to grow and develop in the region, buyers and sellers are assessing the three pillars of power, performance, and possibilities of digital video, with CTV content leading the new wave.

Here’s a deep dive into these three pillars and what they mean for TV buyers and sellers in India.

Power

While linear television still maintains the largest share of media spending in India, consumers are choosing CTV over linear TV for the power it offers consumers — the ability to watch high-quality content on their own terms, at their preferred time. Recent research, conducted in Indian metros and Tier 1 cities highlighted that over 70 per cent of the surveyed users spend up to four hours watching OTT content on a Smart TV in India, with 78 per cent of the surveyed users within the demographic now owning a Smart TV.

With its data-driven content, CTV empowers advertisers to tailor their message to the consumer while providing them with the flexibility to alter ad creative to maximise impact. Brands also have more influence over ad budgets than traditional television, which often requires bulk, upfront spending. With linear TV, publishers have a fixed amount of ad minutes per hour. In CTV, everything’s adaptable, and campaigns can be adjusted in flight to drive optimal outcomes.

Performance

With ad performance top of mind for advertisers and publishers, they’re looking at two critical metrics: ad quality and impact.

Regarding ad delivery, programmatic tools afford CTV publishers more choice in how they want to deliver and monetise ads, what audiences to target, and at what frequency and scale. While linear TV has traditionally offered a more seamless, big-screen viewing experience (without the issues of duplicate ads or slow ad loads), these issues are improving as CTV ad buying becomes more streamlined. With the right programmatic tools, brands can implement a universal frequency cap or achieve competitive separation across all CTV buys.

Research shows that CTV outperforms traditional TV for audience impact in ad awareness and purchase intent. Indian CTV viewers are especially likely to be actively engaged across digital touch points. According to a recent Mediasmart report, out of the Indian respondents surveyed, 89 per cent of CTV users are social media users, 82 per cent are ecommerce, and 44 per cent are gamers. This allows brands to reach audiences at multiple phases along the marketing funnel.

Possibilities

The rapid growth of CTV engagement in India is opening doors for small to large brands in terms of choices. They can invest in CTV for incremental reach or invest in larger-scale tentpole live viewing experiences like the emerging channel of live linear.

CTV is also giving brands a more wholesome understanding of their actual audience network: who is watching, where, and how — which, in turn, informs their marketing approach. As Indian advertisers explore CTV in combination with traditional linear TV, they’re investing in a “TV-plus strategy” that touches both linear and Smart TV screens. Campaign strategies are becoming more converged and ad-buying more streamlined as brands look to blend their upfront commitments with CTV spending and allocate budgets to optimise reach and frequency across platforms.

The Future in India: Data-Driven TV

Ultimately, the way people are watching TV in India is in a state of shift, and the advertising landscape is transforming to reach audiences across digital platforms. CTV’s addressability and granular targeting bring brands closer to their actual audience, building new avenues for content builders and agency networks to connect with viewers. As more brands explore CTV's power, performance, and possibilities, data-driven TV will reach a critical mass and become the future of TV in India.