AdTech Operations will Explode: The Linear-to-Digital Migration Will Accelerate in 2024
And Other Predictions for The Local Advertising Landscape
As the advertising technology or adtech operations landscape continues to evolve, perhaps as profoundly this year as in any, we have taken stock of trends and patterns that our organization — and our clients and business partners – have observed. These observations related to adtech operations have been gathered by colleagues across our company’s departments and functions – Sales, Technology, and Marketing, among others. And, based on these observations, we’ve formulated some Adtech predictions. I wanted to share some of the broader ones with intelligent readers as they contemplate what might be in store for their own operations in 2024.
Continued Shift Toward Streaming & CTV
On the surface, this may not seem revelatory, but there has been a great deal of rethinking this year regarding the ability to monetize digital-first video in comparison to linear TV. Couple that with rumors of a looming shakeout among SVOD services, as well as the unsurprising reports that the pricing gap, inevitably, is closing between virtual MVPDs (aka vMVPDs) and linear MVPDs, and you get some second-guessing about the growth of streaming at the expense of the bundle.
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Nevertheless, we see signs of a continued significant increase in investment in CTV advertising as brands and businesses at the global and local levels leverage more personalized ad experiences to cater to the audience’s streaming habits. Like it or not, the audience – and the consumer – has come to expect personalized experiences.
Nevertheless, a Balancing of Ad Spend in Linear-to-Digital AdTech Operations
Despite the continued shift of viewing from linear to digital, for 2024 there will still be only a cautious migration of ad dollars to CTV at the local and regional levels as these advertisers wait for the market to adjust pricing before they shift from traditional media.
The Rise of Video Marketing
Banner and other forms of static advertising have been in decline for many years now of course, but this trend will only accelerate in 2024 as video-production technology expands. Video marketing will grow more dominant, with more and more marketers using video tools increasingly for product showcases and audience connection.
Needless to say, this bodes well for YouTube, and we’re of course not the first to predict the continued dramatic growth and power of that platform.
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Smart TV Platforms Expanding Use of ACR Data
Smart TVs will become more integral to advertising strategies by offering more efficient audience-targeted buys using automatic content recognition (ACR) data, which enables smart TV platforms to recognize the content being consumed in real time. ACR is a powerful tool for providing the personalized experiences increasingly expected by consumers and marketers alike, and increasingly this personalization will be delivered to you on the largest screen in the house.
More Sports Migration to Streaming
It’s already a given that long-form entertainment programming – the type traditionally found at 10 PM on broadcast TV networks – has migrated largely to on-demand consumption and binge-watching. But, conventional wisdom has held that sports – of necessity, consumed Live – will remain the province of linear TV. But as broadband technology has advanced and improved, more sports leagues and franchises are striking deals with streamers, as evidenced by the nearly weekly announcements we’re now seeing of an NFL game or other event being carried on Amazon and other services.
We’ll see a growing migration of sports and news to streaming platforms in 2024.
More Fragmentation of Video Viewership
The variety and diversity of video content are limited only by bandwidth, and bandwidth is expanding. Video viewership will continue to fragment, with virtually zero limits on niche programming, indicating a wider diversity in the types of content and how it is consumed.
Streaming-Hybrid Model Adoption
The recent Charter-Disney carriage deal served as a bellwether and harbinger for the model we’ll see in 2024: Charter/Spectrum customers are now being offered Xumo boxes enabling access to digital-first and linear content.
Similarly, more linear TV operators will start integrating streaming with traditional services, sparking growth in hybrid models.
Consolidation in the FAST Space
We touched on the widely anticipated shakeout of SVOD services. But, the FAST sector, which has grown so explosively, will begin consolidating in 2024 as the industry matures and providers realize they’ll need to join forces to attract sufficient ad dollars.
Get used to AI and Programmatic Tools
Let’s face it! AI and programmatic, for all the naysaying, will only become more ubiquitous in the video ecosystem. AI and programmatic tools will become more common in the buying, selling, and content creation processes.
Programmatic as Standard Advertising Model
In keeping with the prior prediction – and for all the fears of brand safety — programmatic advertising will only become more the norm such that over time it will become the standard model for video ad sales … and this inevitability will become more apparent in 2024. The specially curated, walled-garden, 1-stop-shopping mega-conglomerate concept will become increasingly difficult to defend.
Moats are drying up…
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