Consumer Technology Association VP of Marketing & Communications Melissa Harrison moderated a CES discussion about the evolution of the connected TV (CTV) from the point of view of marketers. Hisense USA Senior VP of Brand Marketing David VanderWaal noted the pandemic’s impact on TV viewership. “In 2020, 47 percent of people reported watching movies on TVs; in 2023, it’s now 64 percent,” he noted. “More people want to have big screen entertainment.” At digital marketing firm The Trade Desk, Executive VP and CMO Ian Colley reported that 2023 was the “tipping point” for more people watching streaming rather than linear TV.

Las Vegas Raiders SVP of Marketing Kristen Banks said that “as an advertiser, the engagement rates on every channel were through the roof.” “It was hard to monitor the baseline of what we were trying to achieve,” she explained. “The opportunity of audience targeting took a giant leap forward.”

Sports marketing has been a big winner; VanderWaal reported that, “30 percent of adults and 47 percent of millennials specifically buy a streaming service for sports.” “The stats show that destination viewing on big screen TVs is just getting bigger and bigger,” he added.

Colley pointed out that viewers can only watch the Chiefs vs. Dolphins game on subscription service Peacock. “The big media companies thought that sports would be the bastion of live TV forever,” he said. “Streaming brings a much wider scope of advertisers. You don’t need the big national ad spend. You can buy a specific audience, and this precision allows brands to work with a consumer-centric approach.”

As an example, Banks reports that, to target Gen Alpha, they partnered with Nickelodeon.

Panelists noted that the expense of a big cable bill has now been replaced by subscriptions to multiple platforms. “That’s why TV set manufacturers are focused on free content like Pluto TV,” VanderWaal said. For that reason, added Colley, “every major streaming platform has launched an ad-supported version.”

“All of them have said they take more money per consumer in the ad environment than the subscription environment,” he said. “It’s the only way they can compete in the content arms race.”

The international market is growing, Colley pointed out. “From a manufacturer’s point of view, the demand for connected TV is universal, not just from developed nations,” VanderWaal said.

Colley also explained that digital channels bring authenticated audiences, which are “much more relevant and precise” than what is possible with third-party cookies. “It’s the new identity fabric of the Internet, a lot of it driven by how to reach the right people at the right time in a more privacy conscious kind of way.”

With the addition of generative AI, says Bank, advertising can transform from a passive engagement to an active one.