Even as linear broadcasters seek to find their place in the on-demand world, streamers are taking a page from their traditional playbook and embracing appointment TV strategies, according to a new forecast from Kantar Media. “Winners in the platform wars will deploy hybrid strategies balancing VOD and linear content,” Kantar says, predicting streamers will be forced to “shift away from all-at-once release strategies and box-set bingeing for new content in order to maximize revenues.” As global cost-of-living price increases impact consumer discretionary spending, improved campaign planning could make budgets go further, the report says.

“From post-cookie solutions to better campaign planning, data is our fuel —  but its usage is changing,” media division strategic content director John McCarthy says in the Kantar Media Trends and Predictions 2023 report.

Key findings from the report, as highlighted in Broadcasting & Cable, include the fact that ad-supported business models are the answer to consumer inflation worries, with data indicating U.S. market penetration for ad-based video-on-demand (AVOD) grew from 20 percent in Q2 21 to 23 percent by Q2 22.

“Consumers are more accepting of advertising, and as rising costs are making ad-funded content more palatable,” the report explains, warning that the bifurcation among basic and premium tier viewers risks “creating two types of viewers: those with less disposable income who become over-targeted by ads, and those with more disposable income, who are more attractive to advertisers, but are harder to reach.”

Other key findings include:

Contextualize or fail – Marketers must prepare for a post-cookie landscape by experimenting with proxy-based targeting systems and contextual advertising. Targeting within closed ecosystems, in which consented first-party data is available, will still be possible, but wider cross-platform targeting has hit the barrier of consumer privacy.

Dynamic product placement edges closer – Nearly 75 percent of all U.S. broadcast network shows have some form of product placement, targeting those viewers difficult to reach through conventional advertising. Dynamic product placement — enabling a product, billboard or screen featured in content to be substituted or overlaid with a different brand or advert — is also growing. Like addressable advertising, different viewers could be shown tailored ads.

Media companies need to respond to advertisers’ (and consumers’) Net Zero ambitions – Reducing the carbon impact of media and advertising to net zero is the business challenge of our time and a greater opportunity. 2023 needs to be a year of sustainable innovation – whether that’s brands offering green products and services, media owners offering more energy-efficient services, or agencies rethinking how their planning, buying and production strategies are impacting the climate.

“2023 is a year of green innovation for media brands,” Kantar head of creative and media for Singapore Pablo Gomez said on Yahoo Finance, noting that “the number of campaigns that address social and environmental issues has tripled since 2016, and now stands at 6 percent of all ads.”