Willkommen, beer lovers! It’s time for Oktoberfest, Munich’s extravaganza of carnival rides, parades, German foods… oh, and did we mention beer?

At the official Oktoberfest, only six Munich-based breweries are allowed to serve beers that, by 500-plus-year-old purity laws, must be composed of just six ingredients: water, barley, hops, yeast, wheat malt, and/or cane sugar. For brewers, the process of crafting a beer that both adheres to these standards and stands out from the competition requires careful planning and attention to detail—sound familiar, digital marketers?  

Tradition looms large at Oktoberfest, but at the same time, change is a constant (again: Sound familiar, digital marketers?). While millions of people flock to Munich for that traditional six-ingredient Oktoberfest beer, brewers around the world honor the event by crafting brews that experiment with unique but inspired ingredients. Coriander, sage, grapefruit…pickle? Hey, where there’s a taste bud, there’s a beer.

Digital marketers can learn a lot from these Oktoberfest-inspired brewers: Just like crafting an award-winning beer, crafting a standout digital marketing campaign takes quality “ingredients,” tons of creativity, and a test-and-learn approach. So, let’s lift the lid on how marketers can stand out from the pack with a gold-medal digital advertising campaign.

Brewing With Great Ingredients

Knowing that all beer essentially starts with water, malt, hops, and yeast, what makes some beers rise above the rest? A well-defined recipe using premium ingredients like roasted malts that affect color and sweetness profiles, aromatic hops that range from piney to citrusy, imported yeasts, and even high quality water can turn a standard beer into a standout for the discerning drinker, which leads, in turn, to big benefits for brewers.

Similarly, marketers with a well-defined audience can crack open premium inventory through private marketplaces (PMPs) and buying tactics like programmatic guaranteed to advertise where their ideal customers reside online. PMPs offer many benefits, including limited competition, high-quality audiences, and premium, privacy-friendly inventory. Programmatic guaranteed raises those stakes with an added layer of predictability—the chance to lock in the cost and number of impressions upfront—and, thus, streamlined efficiency. These sorts of exclusive, customizable inventory opportunities can increase the relevance of, and customers’ response to, an ad campaign.

Tapping into Trends

Premium ingredients result in premium beers, but brewers often raise the bar by tapping into trends to create new flavors, gain more attention and, better yet, increase share of wallet. For example, beer brands follow seasonal flavor trends, from shandies in the summer to pumpkin spice in the fall. They also monitor consumer health and lifestyle issues, with some brewers developing low-calorie and non-alcoholic beer options to appeal to wider audiences; and broader cultural issues like environmental responsibility, resulting in operational initiatives for breweries to lower their carbon footprints.

Advertisers can also leverage trends to better connect with their audiences. For example, how about this spec ad for Heineken that leveraged this summer’s “Barbie” fever? It went viral because it capitalized so well on the cultural moment the movie created. While some trends bubble up from popular culture, others are specific to certain industries, or stem from consumer behaviors, such as digital audio listenership growing, or time spent watching connected TVs increasing. Changing consumer values also count as trends—even the digital advertising industry is acting on the public’s environmental concerns, for instance.

So to really quench your target audiences’ thirsts, think outside the cooler: hop on cultural trends, consider alternate or emerging media options, and invest in understanding your consumer well enough to surprise and delight them.

Fermenting and Testing Over Time

What would a frosty stein of beer at Oktoberfest be without the alcohol and carbonation? Well, you can’t have either without an important step in the brewing process called fermentation, when the glucose in the wort turns into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. Fermentation takes place after preparation and brewing, but before bottling or canning, and is the step that takes the longest but is necessary for a brewer to get optimal yield.

Just like the time it takes for a brew to ferment, the first stretch of a digital ad campaign can yield results that lead to subsequent real-time optimizations, such as altering media choices, targeting, and creative. In fact, the earlier a campaign begins—even just a month earlier—the more learnings there are to be gleaned, the further costs can be driven down, and the more efficiently a campaign can run.

Think about a time you went to a new brewery, saw the array of drink options on the menu, and ordered a flight to try a few brews before settling on a pint of your new favorite flavor. You turned lots of information into a data set from which you made an informed (and tasty) decision. ­­­­­Similarly, utilizing automated reporting tools that merge disparate data sources into one unified area can drive better optimization decisions and create more efficiency for your team.

Last Call: Tapping into Your Digital Marketing Expertise

As the festivities of Oktoberfest bring people together in celebration of a centuries-old tradition, and beer often, well, just brings people together, a full-bodied digital marketing campaign can also unite your target audience with your brand. With premium “ingredients,” abundant creativity, and experimentation with intent to improve, advertisers can brew a successful digital advertising campaign that stands out from the pack. Prost!

The movement towards privacy in digital advertising is as complex as a Belgian sour (if not more so!). For guidance on managing that complexity, check out our guide to privacy-friendly advertising: It’s your one-stop shop for everything advertisers need to know about the cookieless future.

Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 9/15/23 – 9/21/23 to stay ahead of the curve:

ByteDance and US government seek middle ground for TikTok's future [:02]

Talks have resumed between ByteDance and the US government regarding federal access to and control over user data. This will likely postpone any possibility of the social platform’s sell-off or nationwide ban—a welcome development for brands who’ve leaned into advertising on TikTok.   

Advertising on Snapchat: What Marketers Need to Know [:06]

Speaking of social, while Snapchat gets less attention than TikTok, the platform’s renewed focus on augmented reality (AR) may open new opportunities for advertisers. Here, learn what marketers should know about Snap’s recent ups and downs, and how to best leverage the channel.

The Google Trial Is Going to Rewrite Our Future [:05]

In this op-ed, Columbia Law Professor Constance Wu explores how the verdict of the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google’s parent company, Alphabet, will set a precedent for regulating tech competition that will impact "the battle over commercialized artificial intelligence, as well as newer technologies we cannot yet envision.” No big deal!

Why regulators at the FTC and beyond are turning an eye to child safety in gaming in 2023 [:04]

According to new findings from the FTC, children are struggling more and more to discern advertising from other types of content, particularly on gaming platforms. As a result, there’s a huge push for increased regulation when it comes to child safety on these platforms.

OpenAI hopes ChatGPT Enterprise will answer employers’ data privacy concerns [:05]

With all the buzz around generative AI, there’s also been significant concern around data and privacy—particularly from companies concerned with protecting their proprietary data. OpenAI’s answer: ChatGPT Enterprise, a tool that allows employers to own and control their business data.

Test Your Digital Advertising Knowledge!

Show off your marketing chops with our question of the week. This week’s hot topic: Higher education.

In what year will higher ed institutions likely see a significant enrollment drop off, caused by a US population shift during the Great Recession?

a) 2025

b) 2026

c) 2027

Get the answer, along with a deep dive into how higher ed marketers can adjust to this changing landscape, right here.

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Connected TV usage is skyrocketing as viewers increasingly turn to CTV to watch all their favorite content. And so it’s no surprise that political marketers are all over CTV: It provides the classic TV viewing experience that campaigns (and voters) love, but with more opportunities for precise targeting, measurement, and engagement than linear TV.

In fact, CTV accounted for 30% of all political programmatic ad spend during the 2022 election cycle—a 63% increase from 2020 and a 600% increase from 2018. And that trend is showing no signs of slowing: The 2024 presidential elections are forecast to see 80% more CTV/streaming ad spend than the 2022 midterms, hitting $1.8 billion.

How can political advertisers embrace this rapid growth and ensure they’re effectively connecting with voters where and when they’re watching video? In this guide, we analyze the latest data, trends, and research to help campaigns and political advertisers uncover everything they need to know about CTV advertising for candidates and causes.

In this guide, you’ll learn: 

Ready to make the most of your CTV ad spend? Fill out the form to download your copy of the guide today!

From vibrant billboards in urban centers, to point-of-purchase screens, to digital screens at EV charging stations, digital out-of-home advertising is everywhere.

Also known as DOOH, the channel gives political advertisers a unique opportunity: Connect with voters when they’re on-the-go, in contextually relevant environments, when they may be less reachable on their personal devices. And, thanks to the inherent benefits of digital technology, it lets them do so in a way that allows for targeting, tracking, optimizing, and measuring the success of those campaigns. 

DOOH is an emerging channel—and one that’s quickly gaining steam. As such, more and more political advertisers are embracing it as part of their larger omnichannel media strategies to reach target audiences in key moments of impact. 

In this guide, crafted specifically for political advertisers, we explore how savvy political marketers can make the most of the DOOH opportunity. We dig into the latest trends, insights, and research to help political advertisers leverage the power of place in their DOOH campaigns.

In this guide, you’ll learn: 

Ready to level up your digital out-of-home advertising expertise? Fill out the form to download your copy of the guide today!

Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 9/8/23 – 9/14/23 to stay ahead of the curve:

Strikes. Streaming. Social. Is the Fall TV Season Relevant Anymore? [:04]

With the majority of production at a halt due to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes—not to mention all the other drama and tumult coming out of TV land—some advertisers are starting to wonder: Does fall TV even matter this year? And, if not, where is the best place to divert that spend?

Google to require AI disclosures on political ads [:01]

In anticipation of next year’s presidential election, Google is upping its generative AI regulation: Come November, political marketers will be required to disclose when ads feature “synthetic” content that “inauthentically depicts real or realistic-looking people or events.”

How to Fine-tune Your Target ROAS [:07]

It feels fairly safe to say that all advertising teams want to maximize their return on ad spend. But knowing how to make adjustments to a target ROAS bidding strategy? That can be tricky. This deep dive details how to make the most of an array of target ROAS adjustment scenarios.

Digital media forecast to lead U.S. ad industry growth in 2023 [:02]

According to a new report, the US ad industry is set to grow by 5% this year. The biggest contributor to that growth? Digital advertising, which is projected to make up 64% of all ad spend in 2023.

Adweek Podcast: Why Corporate America Can’t Ignore the Loneliness Epidemic [:32]

We all know the advertising industry is ripe for burnout, but there’s a new conversation growing around loneliness in the workplace, spurred by the surgeon general’s recent advisory on the epidemic of isolation in the US. Here, advertisers share their perspectives on how marketing teams can address loneliness at work.

Test Your Digital Advertising Knowledge!

Show off your marketing chops with our question of the week. This week’s hot topic: Generative AI.

What percentage of digital marketers believe that consumers will find a brand less authentic if it uses AI-generated content in its marketing or advertising efforts?

D. 15%

A. 25%

B. 55%

C. 75%

Get the answer, along with even more insights about the benefits, risks, and future of generative AI in digital marketing, right here.

Want a monthly digest of all the best Scout content delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the Basis Scout newsletter!

Like so many industries, the higher education space has been turned on its head over the past few years. While online learning is no longer the necessity it was at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the continued increase in demand for online education programs is undeniable.

However, COVID-19 wasn’t the only impetus for changes in higher ed. Not only had undergraduate enrollment declined for eight consecutive years pre-pandemic, but colleges and universities must now prepare for an undergraduate enrollment cliff that will begin in 2025.

Luckily, as the higher education space has evolved, so too have the tools available to marketers. For colleges and universities to mitigate enrollment declines and effectively market their virtual and online programs, marketers will need to update their strategies and expand into channels like programmatic, CTV, and emerging social platforms.

Read on to learn how marketers can secure wins for higher ed institutions in this new era.

What’s Changed in Higher Education?

Enrollment Declines

The decrease in higher education enrollment rates is fueled by multiple factors. In a recent survey, US adults ranked the price of tuition, family responsibilities, and work conflicts as their top three reasons for not enrolling in higher ed. Competition from alternative and online training programs, such as tech bootcamps, is another big factor.

Perhaps even more impactful, however, is the rise in public skepticism over the benefits of higher education. A 2022 poll found that only 49 percent of Americans think the economic benefits of a college education outweigh the costs. And in another survey, nearly half of US parents said they’d prefer their children pursue alternative postsecondary options, even if there were no barriers to getting a bachelor’s degree.

Online and Virtual Offerings

While the trend of enrollment declines in higher ed is a long-term one, the rise of online and virtual offerings has come on fast and furious in the past several years. Investment in education technologies that support virtual and online learning is growing, and innovations from digital education start-ups are putting additional pressure on traditional institutions to up the sophistication and quality of their own online offerings. Put simply, the online education market is rapidly expanding, creating a significant amount of competition for colleges and universities to keep up with and making it all the more important to differentiate themselves with their marketing.

How Can Higher Education Marketers Adjust to a Changing Landscape?

So, how can marketers succeed in this tumultuous time for higher education? In short, by leaning into the changes. Marketing to the virtual world, testing and learning on new platforms, and segmenting and targeting will be key.

Market to the Virtual World

Online and virtual learning are quickly becoming the new normal. Just as institutions have pivoted to educating remotely, marketers need to pivot their strategies to reach online learners where they are.

Virtual events are a great way to show key audiences that your higher education brand knows how to do digital. They also open your marketing strategy to international audiences—and what’s better than getting thousands of additional eyes on your offerings?

Open houses, campus visits, and accepted student days can be pivotal in the student decision-making process, and there are plenty of ways to get creative in terms of making them accessible for those who prefer to participate in these experiences online (check out Harvard’s Virtual Tour for inspiration!)

To successfully market a virtual event, experts recommend tapping into co-branding opportunities. If your university is organizing a virtual Q&A with select engineering staff, try leveraging those staff members’ connections. For example, a professor who’s on the board of the Society of Women Engineers might be able to get that group involved with promoting the event.

Test and Learn on New Platforms

Historically, the higher education marketing model has leaned on advertising to general audiences on network and cable TV. Yet the audiences colleges and universities want enrolling in their programs—namely, Gen Z—don’t engage with media in the same way as past generations. Instead of tuning into linear TV, Gen Zers are more likely to watch content on a connected TV, play video games, listen to music, browse the internet, and engage with social media. Higher education advertisers would be wise to redirect some of their media budgets toward these channels in order to reach prospective students.

Speaking of social media, let’s talk Meta for a moment. While the platform no longer offers advertisers the option to target users under 18 based on their interests and activities, marketing on Facebook isn’t a bust. Its algorithm is highly effective at targeting people who are likely to take a desired action, even if relying on that algorithm removes a significant amount of marketer oversight.

At the same time, Facebook isn’t what it used to be—it’s seen a steady decline in use for prospective students aged 12 to 17. Even more, Facebook and Instagram are established social platforms that can be oversaturated with advertising.

When leveraging platforms like these, influencer marketing is a smart way to distinguish your brand, as influencers are particularly effective with Gen Zers and millennials. Higher education brands have a unique opportunity to work with micro- and nano-influencers (think students, alumni, and staff) who are typically perceived as more authentic than celebrity influencers, and can help build brand trust as a result.

In addition to refining strategies on established social platforms, marketers should branch out into new channels. Channels like Snapchat and TikTok (two of the most popular social networks with Gen Z), and audio streaming are great ways to reach younger demographics in places where they spend a lot of their free time. Marketers can then utilize CTV (of which 80% of the US population from 25 to 54 are regular users) to connect with older demographics whose kids will soon be thinking about their post-high school plans.

Segment and Target

When marketing to the virtual world, there may be no better tool in the advertising toolchest than programmatic.

Programmatic advertising gives media buyers an easy way to tailor messaging across unique audience segments and tactics. By leveraging automated higher education programmatic advertising campaigns, higher education marketers can make sure they are serving the right messages to the right audiences, at the right time, and while they’re in the right frame of mind.

With the ability to put custom messaging in front of audiences with different interests and priorities— “traditional undergraduates” and “prospective transfers,” for example—marketers can use their budgets more efficiently while collecting knowledge about what moves the needle with different consumers. On a more tactical level, marketers can customize their creative to retarget audiences, reach people with unique interest targeting, or even connect with people who are physically close to a school’s campus.

First-party data also presents a big opportunity for higher education advertising. For example, leveraging a DMP solution enables marketers to gather advanced audience insights about visitors to a learning institution’s website. Marketers can then use those insights for look-a-like modeling, further expanding their target segments based on the attributes they find.

Key Growth Audiences in Higher Education

While it’s important to collect your own insights about target audiences, general audience research can still help you get a head start. By analyzing data from MRI-Simmons and TeenMark, Basis Technologies’ Research & Insights group has identified five key growth audiences within higher education:

1. Parents of Teenagers

2. College Students

3. Potential Adult Learners

4. Potential Grad Students

5. High School Student College Intenders

All five of these growth segments are heavy digital media users and spend more hours online than the average US adult. They also generally come from diverse and multicultural households and, as such, tend to prefer advertisements that feature people who they can relate to. Across all audience segments, it’s more important than ever for colleges and universities to feature people of diverse identities and backgrounds in their media.

Wrapping Up:  Higher Education Marketing and Advertising

Despite the upheaval, this is an exciting time for marketers who want to lead higher education brands into the digital-first future and help transform perceptions around what higher education can be.

To demonstrate that leadership with digital campaign success, advertisers should prioritize marketing to the virtual world, testing and learning on new platforms, and the strategic use of segmenting and targeting tools. These three approaches alone will set any higher education marketer up to be valedictorian of their team.

Higher ed marketers face unique challenges that demand unique solutions. BasisEducation brings all those solutions together to help empower marketers at colleges and universities, with features like:

Connect with us to find out how BasisEducation can help your team.

Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 9/1/23 - 9/7/23 to stay ahead of the curve:

Meta May Allow Instagram and Facebook Users in Europe to Pay to Avoid Ads [:04]

Meta is reportedly weighing the possibility of offering an ad-free, subscription-based version of Facebook and Instagram in Europe. The source of this dramatic shift in revenue model: the Digital Services Act, which gives European internet users more control over how their data is used, combined with a recent data-focused EU court ruling that curbed Meta’s ability to combine user data across platforms (not to mention a huge fine levied by Irish regulators that cost the social giant hundreds of millions of euros). No wonder Zuckerberg was itching for a cage match to let off some steam!

In Its First Monopoly Trial of Modern Internet Era, U.S. Sets Sights on Google [:07] 

This week, the Justice Department kicked off its first antitrust case against Google, accusing the Big Tech behemoth of monopolizing the online search market. The results from the trial could upend the search market, force Google to restructure or pay huge fines…or ultimately end uneventfully and without further action. Either way, it may just be Act I in the drama between the DOJ and Google: a separate suit on Google’s illegal abuse of its adtech monopoly was filed in January.

Google Chrome pushes ahead with targeted ads based on your browser history [:06]

Speaking of Google, the company is gradually rolling out its new “Enhanced Ad Privacy” Chrome functionality, which allows websites to target users with ads based on their online activities, interests, and browser histories, but is positioned as a privacy-friendly alternative to third-party cookies. However, users who’ve seen the notification are complaining that Google has made it unclear how to toggle this new tracking method on and off—using, to every marketer’s chagrin, vague language and a confusing CTA.

Quiz: Discover the Perfect Digital Advertising Read for You [:01]

Read all of these stories already and hungry for more? No need to waste your time searching for the right read: Answer a few quick questions, and this quiz will provide a piece of content sure to suit your current needs and interests.

Test Your Digital Advertising Knowledge!   

Show off your marketing chops with our question of the week. This week’s hot topic: Convergent TV and video advertising.

How much ad spend was represented by digital video at this year’s upfronts?

A. Less than one-quarter

B. About half

C. Roughly two-thirds

D. More than three-quarters

Click here to get the answer, plus learn how to navigate TV advertising amidst convergent TV’s dramatic plot twists—including the continuing writer’s and actor’s strikes.

Want a monthly digest of all the best Scout content delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the Basis Scout newsletter!

Is it just us, or does the digital advertising world feel like it’s changing faster than your favorite coffee shop’s menu at the first hint of fall (white pumpkin mochas, anyone?) It can be hard to carve out time to just sit down to get in a good read—or even know what to read once you find a few minutes.

Enter: our content recommendation quiz. Whether you’re in the mood for a deep dive or a read-it-in-one-go piece, a quirky article or something a bit more buttoned-up, this quick quiz will identify the perfect read for you.

Sit down, Sopranos. Back up, The Bachelor. Get lost, Game of Thrones! The latest season of TV upfronts might be more dramatic than all three of you combined.

OK, we’re exaggerating...but only slightly. The real-world story has progressed so quickly and taken so many twists and turns that it’s felt like one of those shows you kind of have to read the recaps for. Assuming that’s why you’re here, we'll get right to it:

Let’s start with one of the biggest stories of the year: On May 2, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) went on strike to pressure the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to provide a fairer contract, citing “business practices [that] have slashed [their] compensation and residuals and undermined [their] working conditions.” On July 14, the Screen Actor’s Guild, or SAG-AFTRA, joined the WGA with its own strike against AMPTP, in an effort to secure higher wages, new controls over the use of AI, and a new compensation model to account for the shift to a streaming.

With the strikes curbing (and then effectively ending) production on new scripted TV shows, the fall lineup has shifted from its usual mix of comedies and dramas to a parade of reality shows, game shows, and (gasp!) reruns.

At the same time, there’s been some massive personnel churn across the industry. From major layoffs at Disney and ESPN, to Don Lemon’s exit from CNN and Tucker Carlson’s exit from Fox, to NBCU’s loss of its CEO and its Chairman of Global Advertising and Partnerships (the latter of whom has gone on to become X’s (formerly Twitter) new CEO) shortly before the upfronts, many linear and streaming giants are experiencing some major upheaval. As to how these changes will impact their advertising businesses, there’s a whole lot of uncertainty—both in the short and long term.

Then there's the convergence we’re seeing in the historically fragmented landscape of streaming TV, with new mega-apps like Max, which has combined the content libraries of HBO Max and Discovery+, and Disney planning to fold Hulu and ESPN content into Disney+ later this year to form its own super-app (though Hulu and ESPN+ will still be available as standalone offerings as well­).

While digital video represented about half of ad spend from last year’s upfronts, that share has grown to roughly two-thirds this year, with linear’s YoY share decreasing significantly as advertisers move their dollars over to digital. As for viewers? Well, July 2023 marked the first time ever that linear TV usage dipped below 50% of all TV viewing as streaming continues its inevitable rise.

So yeah, just a few small things for advertisers to keep track of.

To help you make sense of it all, we called in two of our experts, Susan Mandell, VP of Brand Development, and Paul Morrone, Integrated Client Solutions Director. Below, they explore all the biggest questions on advertisers’ minds and provide recommendations for how to weather the wild, wild west of convergent TV in 2023.

How Will the Writer’s and Actor’s Strikes Affect Advertisers?

Paul Morrone: At the beginning of the writer’s strike, the first domino to fall was late night TV. Ever since then, programs like “The Tonight Show,” “SNL,” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” have been running reruns instead of new episodes. Now that SAG-AFTRA is also on strike, and given that both strikes have no end in sight, production for new scripted TV seasons that typically start in the fall has been delayed. All of this impacts the content available for advertisers—a lot of that looks very different now than what they were expecting even just a few months ago.

Susan Mandell: If it does come to a point where there isn’t any new scripted TV coming out, people will be watching unscripted content like sports, as well as going back to CTV and streaming channels (and their giant mass of content) to find something they haven’t watched before…or to indulge with an old favorite. This poses the question of whether the whole situation will fuel more cord-cutting, because if you're not getting the content that you're used to from your cable subscription, you might want to scrap it and put that money toward some streaming services.

Given All These Changes, How Should Advertisers Step Back and Reconsider Their Convergent TV Spend?

PM: While some of our favorite scripted series will experience delayed returns, networks are relying on alternative content to help them weather the storm. Sports and unscripted reality programming will serve as the linear TV advertising band-aid heading into the final stretch of the year. Advertisers will need to be agile and likely shift some of their linear dollars into capitalizing on live sports and/or unscripted content...or, potentially, away from linear TV altogether.

SM: In this moment, if you're advertising on those late-night TV programs that are now showing reruns, you're likely not going to get the consumers you thought you were, because they’re moving their eyeballs to content that's new to them—whether that’s a show they haven't watched before, a new streaming program, or even a new podcast. In many instances, they're not finding that new content in linear right now—with the exception of sports and unscripted content.

The question becomes, how do marketers pivot their current or traditional marketing plans in an effort to really be in front of the right people? If you want to be in front of the right people on video, you can certainly do that on social channels like TikTok, Meta, or YouTube. And luckily, union actors can still work on commercials, since they are covered by a different contract than the one SAG-AFTRA is negotiating with the AMPTP, so there shouldn’t be any significant curbing of the creative opportunities available to advertisers while the strike continues.

In addition to social, there’s also CTV, where you can really connect to a specific audience in ways that you weren't able to with linear. For example, you can use an audience segment of people who have done X, Y and Z, or who fall into a certain demographic, and reach them specifically where they’re viewing their content.

This is a really interesting moment for advertisers to think more about personalization and who their consumers are, who their target consumers are, what consumers drive the lowest customer acquisition rate and the highest lifetime value. How do you target those consumers to generate new revenue streams or new subscribers or whatever you may be selling? If you're thinking about how to maximize your dollars without wasting impressions on the wrong people, gearing it towards digital—think social and CTV—makes sense right now as eyeballs move away from linear to find new content.

Let’s Talk Transparency. How Will Advertisers Know They’re Reaching Their Target Audiences if They’re Moving Dollars to CTV?

SM: When you think about linear, the guarantee you have is that time slot, right? You can see your ad and know that it checks all the boxes, but outside of that, there's little that you're able to do from a targeting perspective, outside the show.

In digital environments, there are more opportunities to get consumers to interact—and for advertisers to see and track those interactions—than we’ve ever had in linear. On YouTube TV, for example, consumers can click to get more information on each ad as it pops up.

Typically, CTV ads that work really well are those with QR codes or those that have immediate calls to action. And this is an interesting moment where people tend to have their phones or devices in their hands while they’re watching TV, so they're already ready to interact.

Given All the Upheaval and Unpredictability in the Current TV Landscape, What Else Should Advertisers Be Prioritizing Right Now?

PM: One of the things that I find really interesting about this moment is that it shows how quickly things can change in this space. Constant change is going to be the new normal. We've seen an abundance of streaming platforms trying to go to market, as well as convergence of content with Max and Disney, and that tumult is going to continue because not everyone's going to be able to survive.

Agility, and the ability to react quickly, is critical right now. For advertisers, it’s a great opportunity to embrace your sense of adventure—a test and learn approach is really going to be key.

SM: You’ve got to be flexible, and the digital space affords a lot more flexibility than we’ve ever had in linear. In this space, you can move dollars from a display campaign to a video campaign with three clicks of a button. For marketers to be agile and have their dollars flow in and out of mediums depending on what’s working and where people are, being in the digital space or the CTV space is really the best way to meet your consumers where they are.

Not to say that linear isn’t one of the strongest mediums out there—it absolutely is. But there are alternatives now that give marketers more flexibility to reach the right consumers without the price tag or the volatility that we’re seeing in linear.

Approaching Convergent TV: Wrapping Up

Phew! This might be one of those seasons you want to watch a second time, just to make sure you catch it all. To recap the recap, here’s what advertisers should know:

In light of the writer’s and actor’s strikes, as well as larger audience trends, advertisers may want to consider moving some of their linear dollars over to digital video to capture audience attention on the channels and platforms where consumers are spending time. And with major changes seeming to happen more and more at the broadcast and streaming giants, digital offers advertisers the agility necessary to act swiftly in reaction to whatever plot twists come down the line.

Luckily, there’s one thing that’s certain: TV is one drama that won’t get cancelled anytime soon.

If you’re ready to lean into connected TV, but want more information on how to do it right, check out our connected TV advertising guide for the latest data, trends, and best practices.