In Conversation with Nikhil Kumar, Chief Growth Officer at mediasmart

The rapid growth of Connected TV (CTV) combined with programmatic advertising is transforming the ad landscape, particularly in anticipation of the OTT Olympics broadcasts. Innovations like Dynamic Ad Insertion, AI-driven personalization, and contextual targeting are enhancing viewer engagement and precision targeting.

In this interaction, Nikhil Kumar, Chief Growth Officer at mediasmart, will shed light on these advancements and strategies to maximize ROI for brands utilizing AdTech. Through this interaction, he will discuss how CTV and a holistic multi-screen approach can effectively capture and engage diverse audiences, ensuring impactful advertising campaigns leading up to the Olympics.

Agency Reporter – What recent innovations in AdTech-driven ad formats and placements have shown efficacy in enhancing engagement leading up to OTT Olympics broadcasts?

Nikhil Kumar – CTV, combined with programmatic advertising, is transforming the ad landscape for OTT Olympics broadcasts. Programmatic technology enables automated, real-time ad buying, ensuring precision targeting and optimal placements, leading to higher viewer engagement. Innovations such as Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) personalize live ads based on viewer data, while interactive and shoppable ads transform passive viewing into active engagement. AI-driven personalization tailors ad experiences to individual preferences, and contextual targeting aligns ads seamlessly with the content being viewed, such as sports-specific ads during Olympic events. The efficiency of programmatic advertising, combined with branded content and sponsorships, integrates brand messages smoothly into Olympic coverage. It’s also important to incorporate a multi-screen approach as the audience for Olympics comprises different user cohorts. It’s not limited to only sports enthusiasts, but also those who like to travel, have interest in art & history, health and fitness enthusiasts, and many more. It’s important to have a holistic approach to CTV advertising by syncing with DOOH campaigns, store visits, and action on mobile or web to create a cohesive and engaging experience.

Agency Reporter – With the anticipated surge in advertising on OTT platforms before the Olympics, how do you predict its impact on brand visibility and engagement compared to other periods of the year or traditional advertising methods, considering the advancements in AdTech?

Nikhil Kumar – CTV is here and now, providing a powerful platform to reach a diverse and growing audience. With over 46+ OTT apps and a growing FAST channel ecosystem, CTV exemplifies the broad appeal of these platforms across various user groups and demographics.

While traditional TV continues to attract advertiser interest due to its wide reach, CTV is rapidly growing, presenting opportunities for both traditional and digital-first brands. The audience is steadily moving from linear TV to CTV, creating a unique chance for advertisers to capture this shifting viewership. This transition is driven by the enhanced measurability and targeting capabilities of CTV, including geolocation targeting and the ability to tailor ads to specific viewer segments

Agency Reporter – Could you outline some strategies that have demonstrated effectiveness in maximizing ROI for brands utilizing AdTech in pre-Olympics advertising on OTT platforms?

Nikhil Kumar – For big-ticket events like the Olympics it’s important to focus on getting the timing, targeting, and technology right! Starting too early can lead to user fatigue, whereas if you don’t plan your campaigns well it can eat into your market position. Implementing frequency capping is essential since users often engage with multiple OTT platforms. Repeated exposure to the same ads can cause user fatigue and reduce engagement. Hence, frequency capping is important to manage ad exposure, ensuring users aren’t overwhelmed with identical ads across different platforms, thereby maintaining engagement levels.

It’s also important to understand the right target audience. With CTV, advertisers can choose location-based and demographic targeting, and can also go deeper into targeting at the screen level.

Next, focusing on leveraging the right technology is crucial to get the right results as they can be the difference in what an advertiser does on CTV in silo vs what they do on CTV in addition to the other media platforms to create a more holistic and engaging plan. Household Sync technology on CTV, for instance, allows brands to target viewers in the same household and retarget them to improve brand recall and conversions. Furthermore, Engagement Sync technology enhances targeting capabilities by utilizing data from user engagement on one device to retarget them with relevant content on other devices. This unified approach ensures consistency and coherence in the advertising journey, regardless of the device used.

Finally, utilizing real-time analytics enables brands to monitor performance and make dynamic adjustments to their campaigns, optimizing ad spend and enhancing results. On CTV, some key metrics and measurable outcomes range from installs, page visits, organic growth, searches and app opens, and ofcourse purchase. Moving beyond traditional metrics, we also help our clients to understand overall brand lift where the indices have shown significant growth across all five parameters – message association, brand awareness, brand favorability, ad recall, and purchase intent – indicating high impact in maximizing ROI via bespoke mediasmart solutions.

Agency Reporter – Amidst the upcoming abundance of Olympics-related content, how can advertisers leverage AdTech to ensure their message stands out and effectively captures viewer attention?

Nikhil Kumar – Like with any high-action sports event, whether it is Olympics, IPL, World Cup, the key is to connect with the audiences and leave a lasting impression that stays long after the games have ended. To ensure their message rises above the noise, leveraging cutting-edge programmatic technology on CTV is essential. Harnessing advanced audience segmentation and personalization allows brands to tailor ads to individual viewer preferences, boosting relevance and engagement. Further, through expert programmatic technology strategically placing ads in high-visibility spots can help to ensure optimal reach during peak moments. Household Sync technology on CTV, for instance, allows brands to target viewers in the same household and retarget them to improve brand recall and conversions.

Having the right ad formats in the advertising arsenal also helps to ensure brand visibility and recall. Interactive ads, for instance, are great for generating brand engagement. This can be either through creating an animated background where products and the main messages of the ad gain a dedicated spot, or through the progress bar sync format, where the product or service becomes a part of the video. Brands can also leverage Smart QR codes to create powerful redirections and boost action.

Agency Reporter – Given the increasing prevalence of second-screen viewing habits, especially during live sports events like the Olympics, how can CTV be employed to seamlessly integrate messaging across multiple screens, enhancing brand recall and engagement?

Nikhil Kumar – The Olympics is not just about watching events on television or streaming platforms. During the games, organic searches for results and updates surge, fans engage with social media for live commentary, and communities gather to share the excitement. This multi-faceted engagement necessitates a shift in focus for advertisers: from where the ad is shown to how to reach the right audience. Multi-screen advertising solutions focus on reaching the user rather than merely filling an ad slot, creating a more cohesive and impactful brand experience. With mediasmart’s Household Sync, Engagement, and App Sync, we focus on synchronizing CTV ads with content on multiple screens as well as online and offline consumer journeys, to deliver consistent and complementary messaging across multiple screens. This approach ensures that viewers encounter the brand’s message seamlessly, whether they are watching the main event on their Smart TV or engaging with related content on their phone.

Agency Reporter – What are the key metrics within CTV advertising that you consider essential for evaluating the effectiveness of advertising campaigns in the lead-up to the Olympics?

Nikhil Kumar – It’s important to evaluate what effectiveness means and within the CTV domain, what all could be measurable to be defined as key metrics. Currently within CTV, VCRs become a key metric of evaluating user attention and focus on ad viewing ad impact. While a large part of the Western markets have also evolved to clicks on CTV, India is still in its early days. Thereby, within the current ecosystem, technologies on CTV where more measurable parameters are available with solutions of mediasmart and proprietary Household Sync allow advertisers to do more with their CTV advertising. Further, technologies like App Measurement, Engagement Sync, and Offline Sync empower advertisers to instantly track installs, in-app events across both CTV and mobile platforms, and monitor foot traffic.

Agency Reporter – How do you perceive consumer behavior patterns shifting in anticipation of the Olympics, and how might this influence ad placement and messaging strategies on OTT platforms leveraging CTV?

Nikhil Kumar – As viewers increasingly turn to OTT platforms for convenient and personalized content access, CTV plays a crucial role in shaping effective ad placement and messaging strategies. Firstly, there’s a notable surge in OTT platform usage preceding and during the Olympics, driven by heightened interest in live and on-demand sports coverage. This presents a prime opportunity for advertisers to reach engaged audiences through targeted ad placements that align with viewers’ content preferences. Leveraging technologies like programmatic advertising allows for real-time adjustments and optimizations of ad placements to maximize reach and engagement. In addition to leveraging precise targeting and real-time optimization, capturing the euphoria and passion surrounding sports is essential for effective ad placement and messaging during the Olympics on OTT platforms. The Olympics evoke a sense of national pride, unity, and admiration for athletic excellence, creating a unique emotional backdrop for brands to connect with audiences.

Agency Reporter – Can you discuss how emerging AdTech technologies, including AI, are being harnessed to enrich the viewer experience for OTT ads in the pre-Olympics season?

Nikhil Kumar – Emerging technologies in advertising, most notably AI-powered predictive analytics, can forecast viewer behavior and ad performance, allowing advertisers to fine-tune their strategies before and during the Olympics season. This helps in allocating budgets more effectively and optimizing campaign outcomes. AI can also optimize ad placement based on real-time data insights and advertisers can use it to predict peak viewing times and adjust ad delivery accordingly to maximize visibility and impact during moments of high viewer engagement. Now with GenAI tools, advertisers can also generate creative ad content and storytelling formats that resonate with viewers emotionally based on the sports events and the teams playing. It can also be used to innovate more use cases around vernacular creatives and improve the context/relavancy of the ads. We’re also using GenAI capabilities within mediasmart to assess the ad suitability of CTV traffic to automatically filter out risk categories. This ensures that advertisers benefit from a secure and brand-appropriate environment.

Looking beyond the current Olympics, the continued evolution of AdTech promises even more transformative changes in how we engage with audiences. Within mediasmart – and Affle – we are focusing on leveraging GenAI to power innovations that will shape the future of advertising and lead long-term growth. We have recently filed 15 new patents in India that cover futuristic applications and span advanced AI areas such as personalization, recommendation systems, predictive analytics, privacy, and enhanced fraud detection.