Why CTV is the MVP for Brands This Football Season

5 Min Read

As we discussed last week, viewership for tentpole events like “The Big Game” is dropping steadily–but that hasn’t stopped ad spend cost from skyrocketing. The average cost of a 0:30 second spot in next month’s game can cost upwards of $13 million, and that’s not even factoring in hidden costs to write, shoot, produce, edit, and test the spot. That leaves brands spending tens of millions of dollars for thirty seconds that may not be seen by the target audience, remembered, or produce conversions—and even if it did, you’d have no way to track it.

Now, what if you could take that budget and produce a high-impact ad for less money and with more visibility? What if you could target the ideal viewer, ensure you’re being seen, then track the customer journey in real-time from the first point of contact to the final point of purchase? Knowing all of this, what kind of ads would you make? The experts from Maximum Effort, MNTN, and QuickFrame by MNTN are sharing with MediaPost what’s possible and exploring how Connected TV’s speed, distribution, and technology provide everything you need to be MVP this year. RSVP now to save your seat.

CTV: A Better Way to Advertise

The Big Game allows you to deliver ads to a large audience at once – but how engaged are they? Are they even your right audience? And most importantly, how do you figure out your ROI? Running ads during tentpole events like this can be its own kind of competition—you’re fighting against big brands, other creative, and the attention span of viewers during a social event. It’s not a surprise that only two of out thirteen people can correctly identify a brand that ran an ad during the game, and only 35% of people remember the brand at all. That’s not the kind of results more advertisers are looking for after sinking millions into an ad spot.

Thankfully, there’s a better way to reach your audience. CTV advertising does what was once thought impossible—it allows advertisers to target the audience they want and get real-time feedback. This introduces ad spend efficiency—and premium platforms like MNTN Performance TV let you track the results in real-time to see what’s working, optimize creative on the fly, and even see the customer journey to track when a viewer converts to a customer—regardless of what device they use. The result is no upfront bidding wars, no competing for attention, and no wasted impressions—and all for a fraction of the cost it takes to serve an ad in a championship football game.

Keeping Up with Video Demand

Today’s consumer demands are at an all-time high. Not only do they have expectations for how ads are served, but they also prefer to engage with video. Results show that viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in video format, as opposed to just 10% when read. As a result, it’s no surprise that video has emerged as the most effective communication tool for brands. And with CTV surging, brands are rethinking how they approach video—and are increasingly needing high-performing creative that can be deployed quickly.

The problem? Video creation can be expensive, it needs frequent refreshing to maintain message efficacy, and it’s difficult to scale. To get past these roadblocks, savvy marketers are creating dynamic content through premium video and insights platforms like QuickFrame by MNTN. The result is brands can scale their video output and keep pace with today’s video-first world by creating more content for every channel, audience, and objective—and quickly and easily understand performance. QuickFrame by MNTN goes even further with its proprietary Video Vitals AI that analyzes each video for over 1,000 creative attributes—giving you the recipe for the perfect ad.

Creating Ownable Moments

Every brand dreams of having the most talked-about ad during The Big Game, but few ever achieve this level of success. Instead of spending bloated budgets on a high-profile television gamble, some advertisers are using CTV to take a different approach: taking a stand and creating an ownable moment. These opportunities are effective at creating a strong connection between a brand and its target audience. And thanks to CTV’s fast turnaround time and agility to optimize creative, it’s easier than ever to deploy ads that leverage cultural moments or topical moments.

Unfortunately, these viral moments are novel for a reason: they’re unique, they’re fleeting, and they’re hard to execute. But because of their low cost and high visibility, brands of all sizes are pursuing them more than ever—and looking for partners who can help create highly impactful and memorable ads in a very tight timeframe. Maximum Effort, known globally as a pioneer of the “fast-vertising” model, is one of these partners that has created award-winning content for brands like Mint Mobile, Match.com, Deadpool, and more (and for your brand, part of MNTN’s Creative-as-a-Subscription service). Regardless of what partner you choose (or one at all), creating these viral moments is just one more way for brands to get the impact of an ad in The Big Game—for a mere fraction of the cost.

Even More Super Insights Await

This is just scratching the surface of what the pros from MNTN, QuickFrame by MNTN, and Maximum Effort will discuss with MediaPost. Join us for Keep the Super, Lose the Bowl: How to Quickly Build High-Impact TV & Video Creative to learn more all-star strategies, insights, and tips to cut The Big Game and stretch your ad dollar further. RSVP now.