2020 Trends: DOOH, OTT and CTV Advertising Go Mainstream

Is 2020 the year that digital out of home (DOOH), over-the-top (OTT) and connected TV (CTV) advertising finally goes big? All signs point to a resounding yes. Expect both connected TV advertising and OTT advertising to grow by leaps and bounds in 2020.

“We’re seeing a continued increase in spending for video across platforms, but the growth has been primarily focused on mobile and Connected TV,” says Vanja B. Brzin, VP of Product Marketing at Celtra.

Defining DOOH, OTT and CTV

Before we get into it, let’s make sure we’re on the same page. For starters, digital out of home (DOOH) refers to screens and devices found outside of the home or the office. DOOH encompasses everything from elevator displays to gas station pumps and everything else in between. These outdoor screens are powered by apps, and marketers are beginning to be able to run digital advertisements in these environments programmatically.

OTT refers to video that is coming over the top of a traditional TV set. Instead of delivering video content through linear TV or traditional cable, OTT video is delivered through an internet connection. OTT devices can include a smartphone, a tablet or even gaming consoles. Apple TV and Roku are big names in the OTT hardware space, while Netflix is the top player in the OTT streaming space.

CTV simply refers to a television set that is connected to the internet. This is why it’s often also called smart TV. With connected TVs or smart TVs, viewers access content over the internet, but the end device is a standard TV screen. Many television sets now come imbued with this connectivity, but it can also be added to a television through a device like a Chromecast, or through a separate layer like a gaming console or set-top box.

Charting the Rise of Addressable TV

As these kinds of viewing experiences become more commonplace, expect mobile marketers and advertisers to be right behind them. Abhay noted that OTT/CTV experiences can be especially ideal for direct-to-consumer brands, while Mike Brooks, SVP of Revenue for WeatherBug, said that he sees a lot of potential from OTT and CTV ads for user acquisition.

In his talk with Anne Frisbie during Advertising Week New York 2019, Vinny Rinaldi, Head of Addressable Media and Technology at The Hershey’s Company, said Hershey’s would be investing more in OTT, especially as an extension of their present mobile marketing efforts. This makes sense, as a lot of OTT video viewing happens on mobile devices now.

“Mobile consumers expect inspiring, personal and relevant experiences across an ever-growing variety of channels and ad formats. The explosion of ecosystem complexity has created a new kind of challenge for marketers,” Vanja said.

But this growth won’t come without its fair share of hiccups. For starters, getting measurement and viewability right within these environments will be key. If this is not solved, then it’s possible that marketers won’t flock en masse to these screens in 2020. Marketers need baseline metrics like completion rates from OTT and CTV in order to be able to fully measure their results and track progress.

“We've formed a number of partnerships combining expertise to offer solutions in the OTT, CTV, SVOD and OOH spaces. For example, colliding advanced data analysis with location technologies to provide marketers with effective intelligence on OOH. There is a great deal of interest in these exploding areas as we head into 2020,” said Jason Hicks, EVP of Growth at Kochava.

There’s also the issue of fraud. As OTT/CTV marketing budgets rise, fraudsters are right on their heels.

Fraud is increasingly found “also in emerging environments where there might not be the comprehensive safeguards in place that there are in the more developed environments. And so we're seeing fraudsters trying to take advantage of the CTV space. I think that's going to continue into 2020 but you're going to see companies like us fight harder and harder,” Steven Woolway, SVP of Business Development at DoubleVerify, said in October 2019.

Charting 2020’s Top Mobile Advertising and Marketing Trends

How will brands more effectively understand, identify, engage and acquire mobile-first users? What steps will they take to drive real connections with consumers over mobile? Download InMobi’s 2020 trends report today for key insights on the future from the world’s top mobile experts.

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Note: This is the fourth in a five-part series on the top mobile marketing and advertising trends of 2020. The first post covers how mobile in-app advertising overall is likely to evolve and mature in 2020, and the second post covers the top mobile advertising data usage trends of 2020. The third post covered ad fraud and ongoing efforts to boost trust and transparency. Be sure to stay tuned to the InMobi blog for more predictions in the fifth and final blog post in the series.