Pixalate, the world’s leading cross-platform ad fraud solution — and the only company accredited by the MRC to detect and filter invalid traffic in Connected TV/OTT — recently concluded an expert webinar: “How to Succeed with High Quality OTT in 2019.”
You can download the completed webinar on demand here. The webinar featured experts from RhythmOne, Telaria, Bold Screen Media, and Pixalate.
This blog post recaps the key takeaways from the event, from market forces driving OTT adoption to potential roadblocks and what’s being done to overcome those challenges.
The OTT ad market is projected to exceed $50 billion by 2020. Additionally, according to comScore, over 80% of U.S. households already have an OTT device.
“OTT has brought us a market where the consumer is already there,” said panel moderator Amy King, VP of product marketing at Pixalate. “Now the programmatic and direct worlds are catching up with the content those consumers are taking in. [The market is] poised for growth, and all estimates predict exponential growth.”
Todd Johnson, VP of Emerging Markets, RhythmOne, said consumer adoption is the biggest market factor driving growth. Johnson said RhythmOne seeks to create a CTV/OTT environment that enables brands to “replace and enhance” traditional TV.
Clare Dunnett, SVP of Client Success, Telaria, said CTV/OTT now accounts for 30% of the company’s revenue and helped fuel 320% year-over-year revenue growth as of Q3 2018. Dunnett said the company has observed publisher partners “doubling down” on CTV/OTT, driving additional growth.
Dan Alexander, CEO and Co-Founder, Bold Screen Media, believes education is paramount in CTV/OTT, as brands that have “spent money in broadcast since the 1950s are now dipping their toes in OTT and CTV environments.” Alexander said that’s where Bold Screen sees a lot of new digital video investments, including OTT, come from.
A 2018 Videology survey, reported on by eMarketer, noted that “quality of inventory (verified, fraud-free)” was the No. 2 CTV/OTT advertising challenge among U.S. agencies and marketers in 2018..jpg?width=350&name=Untitled-Project%20(2).jpg)
Asked if those are still the top two challenges in 2019, all three panelists agreed.
“Priorities evolve ... but reach and quality are still the top two challenges for the overall industry,” said RhythmOne’s Johnson.
Telaria’s Dunnett added: "There’s a lot of ad dollars going into the space … and the reality is there are always going to be some bad actors that come with that.”
But other challenges are starting to emerge as well. Bold Screen’s Alexander said that educating buyers of the potential of OTT — while making them sufficiently aware of the challenges — is a requirement that the industry still needs to meet.
The OTT ad ecosystem is fragmented and nascent. There are countless apps but no central app stores comparable to the mobile space. Non-standard naming conventions are wreaking havoc on reporting (and being taken advantage of by fraudsters). Some standards are slowly emerging, but have not yet been adopted at scale.
All of these factors, coupled with the rapid rise in audience and ad spend, has created an environment ripe for fraud. From app spoofing, to the abuse of Server Side Ad Insertion (SSAI), to device farms, the OTT ecosystem has its share of fraudulent activity.
All three panelists said their companies work with accredited third parties, such as Pixalate, to guard inventory, root out ad fraud, and improve the overall quality of Connected TV/OTT.
But that’s not all the companies do. RhythmOne’s Johnson and Bold Screen's Alexander stressed the importance of one-to-one relationships to get a better understanding of where the inventory is coming from to improve transparency. Dunnett highlighted Telaria’s internal inventory quality team, which examines all supply brought on board.
In short: When it comes to improving quality in CTV/OTT, today’s leaders stress the importance of coupling internal processes with reputable, accredited third-party measurement.
The full webinar features more content on the current state of CTV/OTT, challenges unique to the environment, what’s being done to combat those challenges), and what’s next for CTV/OTT.
Each panelist also shares their one key piece of advice for any company seeking to grow with quality OTT in 2019.
Our audience had a lot of questions about both the details of fraud in OTT and how Pixalate detects and blocks in a fragmented ecosystem. We'll be following up with posts to address these topics in the coming weeks, so subscribe to our blog to stay up to date.
You can download the completed webinar on demand here.
As the industry’s first and only MRC-accredited solution for the detection and filtration of invalid traffic in Connected TV/OTT, Pixalate has demonstrated its commitment to sophisticated ad fraud solutions across all devices.
To learn more about Pixalate’s fraud-fighting solutions, schedule a demo today:
