(Friday, 16th February) The last two decades have spiked mobile-first digital consumption, especially for an elusive younger video-streaming audience.  User-generated content found its foothold through YouTube & Instagram, and it has been easy to get audiences hooked on streaming over hand-held mobile devices. 

While a mobile is a personal device, making individual targeted advertising quite simple, when it comes to communal devices such as CTVs, differentiating each user for targeted advertising becomes more difficult. Netflix attempted to accomplish this by launching “profile selection” on household devices including Smart-TVs and other Connected TVs.

We have come to realise that profile selection is not as effective on communal CTV devices leading to a phenomenon called Content Pollution: the inability to distinguish between consumers who use streaming apps. It is clear that CTVs require a different approach for targeted advertising . As the same content is available on both personal and household devices, advertisers must find a way to target adverts on CTVs. 

Differentiating UI/UX on CTV Apps across Samsung, LG, Roku and a range of other Connected TVs also make it harder to track users to the dot. 

The pandemic brought people back into their living rooms, increasing viewing hours on CTVs, which solidified the importance of targeted advertising on such devices. Manufacturers have created a fragmented market with Android or Fire TV, Samsung, LG, Roku, and the new launch of Titan OS, which makes standardisation difficult, at least for now. 

The biggest question for us all to ponder is how does one target consumers better with CTV Apps, as consumers accept such targeted ad-serving on personal devices like mobiles?