Connected TV

How Leading Brands Unlock Successful CTV Results

MNTN and Digiday share key insights that every advertiser must know

How Leading Brands Unlock Successful CTV Results

3 Min Read

If you’re in advertising, you already know that CTV has shaken up the industry forever. But how are the world’s leading brands and agencies using it to rethink their creative strategies? And how can your brand use the platform to do the same?

MNTN and Digiday recently surveyed 123 of the most successful brands on CTV to learn about their experiences, what challenges they faced, and what they’re planning for 2022. MNTN Senior Direct of Customer Success, Alexa Tierney, sat down with Digiday to discuss the survey results and have a fireside chat to discuss her insights on what a successful CTV marketing team looks like, tips on how to maximize CTV, and where she thinks the channel is headed next.

On CTV Becoming the Next Social Media Marketing

A big topic of discussion during the webinar was how brands are pulling ad dollars away from other channels like social media and spending it instead on CTV. In our survey with Digiday, 41% of respondents revealed they’re moving their budget away from social media marketing and towards CTV – despite social media platforms seeing heightened attention and interest in the past two years.

It’s easy to understand why – CTV delivers all of the targeting capabilities and metrics of digital marketing, with the powerful visual storytelling of television. “One of the most impactful things driving brands to CTV is how it delivers the traditional ad format but in a very, very targetable way,” explained Tierney. “Unlike linear TV, CTV advertising is not broad or network-based. You can target a user profile or deliver an ad to a household with someone inside who’s in the market for your product or previously bought from your competitor. That kind of laser focus makes a more efficient impression.”

What a Successful CTV Team Looks Like

During the fireside chat portion of the webinar, Tierney was asked what a successful marketing team utilizing CTV looks like, and what they used as benchmarks for success. Tierney’s answer was simple but powerful: “Successful marketing teams come together.” She elaborated, “They’re not using traditional marketing plans based on what worked in previous efforts. They don’t silo performance and brand marketing. The successful companies I’ve seen are in lockstep communications around their objectives.”

Tierney went on to explain that successful marketing teams have a very clear goal for their brand on CTV, such as ROAS, CPA, CPV, or improving CLV. “They have different tiers of goals so they can make different decisions on where to shift funds. They’re very honest and clear with themselves and their partners so they can be smart and flexible with their investment.”

The Future of CTV Looks Brighter Than Ever

Finally, Tierney was asked to peer into her crystal ball and give a prediction for the state of CTV – and how it’ll change or influence advertising – five years from now. Tierney admitted that she could have never predicted the current state of CTV five years ago, which goes to show we’re nowhere near the peak. “We’ll see a similar trend that we saw with digital and display advertising, or social media marketing when it launched,” she predicted. “It will probably be a little while until CTV hits full maturity – which is incredibly exciting. Like other channels, there will be a huge rise initially and then the next step becomes bridging the gap between it being a shiny new tool and using it to measure results effectively.”

What will those measurement tactics look like? Tierney continued, “It’ll be about having better access to cross-channel reporting and measuring tools for offline performance. How does it affect in-store traffic or purchases? I think there are a lot of ways we already do this, but as Connected TV continues to take the lion share of marketing dollars, we’ll see these tools continue to evolve and grow.”