All I Want For Christmas Is My CTV

The holidays are upon us, and that means everyone is trying to remember what everyone close to them has been dying to get. The shopping madness begins earlier and earlier every year. But this year, shoppers and marketers are both facing some discouraging hurdles. Inflation, higher prices, the fear of a recession, and other obstacles are threatening to squelch some of the holiday spirit for buyers. These same problems make it trickier for marketing teams to rely on old generic approaches to advertising. The Classic “casting a wide net” strategy or one-and-done campaigns just won’t work when audiences are looking to spend more mindfully. Rather, you’ll need to target your campaigns thoughtfully, personalize your outreach, and engage with your audience, which is of course done best with CTV and Email.

There’s Nothing Like CTV For The HolidaysThe holidays bring everyone closer together, which means more people inside visiting each other’s homes. This is why, for the most part, CTV sees a huge jump in numbers during Q4. Q4 is usually very strong for streaming providers, when a lot of fresh content hits the networks. Many engage in binge-watching or in streaming holiday content during this season. Americans continue to transition from broadcast TV to streaming services. In fact, last year streaming reached an all-time weekly high in December — taking 33 percent of total TV viewing share during Christmas week. When your favorite holiday movie isn’t on cable, when you’re in the mood to watch it, where else are you going to turn?

CTV is one of the fastest growing channels in advertising right now, and for good reason. It’s highly targeted, unskippable, and trackable. Unlike linear TV advertising, which focuses on a highly unfocused “spray and pray” approach, CTV is targeted. Even more so, CTV has seen its numbers jump, just during 2022 alone. A recent study done by Pixilate analyzed programmatic advertising activity across over 300 million Connected TV (CTV) devices and over 70,000 programmatic-support CTV apps. This study found that 94 percent of US households are now reachable by programmatic CTV ads — an 8 percent growth from 2021. It also found a 20 percent YoY increase in the volume of CTV apps that support open programmatic advertising.

 And with the number of devices dramatically on the rise and the age of CTV users growing, it just makes sense as a medium to advertise through. Not to mention that Netflix has just added an ad-tier to their subscription service this quarter, opening up a never touched . Also, linear TV is falling away. A report from eMarketer shows that US linear TV ad spending will grow by 4.1percent to $68.35 billion this year, but it will drop by $3.41 billion by the year 2026.

Email – A Tool Almost As Old As The HolidaysBut how does something as seemingly archaic as Email fit into all of this? Well, despite what you may think, Email is still a powerhouse when it comes to marketing. The average person checks their email 20 times a day. With physical mail becoming less common, more people turn to having bills and other important documents sent straight to their email address. This is leading to rising usage among all age groups. Most noticeable is the rise of usage within the 14-29 year olds, at a high of 71%.  In 2020, email marketing revenue stood at 7.5 billion U.S. dollars, and by 2023, this figure is set to cross the 10-billion-dollar threshold. According to recent research by AWeber, 66% of small businesses use email marketing to communicate with leads and/or customers. 

CTV & Email – A Combination As Good As Hot Cocoa And Marshmallows
This is exactly why many marketers have started using more interactive ads on CTV. These display retargeting types of ads usually prompt the viewer to scan a QR code that hyperlinks them to a landing page specifically designed for that advertisement. While this is a great strategy to increase click through rates, CTV ad impressions, as well as getting various information from the consumer. Stirista goes beyond that using CTV with Email retargeting. Multiple devices in a household can stream CTV, but those devices aren’t uniquely used by one person alone. With our ID graph, we can find devices/accounts and the emails associated with them to create personalized targeted (or retargeted) advertisements. A recent Emarketer survey found that 70% of viewers check their email during CTV ad-breaks, compared to less than 20% who use the time to browse the web. If post-covid eating out has taught us anything, it’s that most people will try their best to avoid scanning QR codes.

Regardless of the economic situation, people will be doing their due diligence and browsing to find gifts this holiday season. CTV is the right direction to go when making sure that you target the right audience. Whether they’re cozied up on a cold winter night, having a family movie night, or even just putting something on in the background, CTV will be in their homes. Stirista can help be your present purchasing pal and make sure you get the gift of better ROI.