Connected TV Advertising - more things change, the more they stay the same

Millennials are everyone's target customers, but figuring out how to reach them, engage them and convert them has been a thorn in every companies side.  In the era of "cord cutting," and targeted ads - companies are complimenting their traditional linear TV ad spots with ones purchased on Connected TV (CTV).

According to AdWeek, direct to consumer shoppers spend 70% more time streaming content on services like Netflix and Hulu than on social media and 20% more time on streaming television than traditional television.    The best part is that the streaming services have a wide age range in their audiences and the service knows the demographic and psychographic information about each of their subscribers.  It's a marketers dream to be able to micro-target their audience.

Although all that seems really great and on-trend, what does this mean in the constantly moving landscape of Connected TV?  As the cord cutter trend increases, one would suspect that CTV subscriptions increase too.  However, there's a trend in sharing subscriptions and log-in information.  One subscription can be used in multiple households in completely different geographic locations - so what does this mean for targeted ads and curated content by profile or persona?  Advertisers run the risk sending messages to someone logged in that is not the targeted audience, but using the subscription of the targeted audience - so then how realistically effective is it really to reach your audience?

Another trend is subscription fatigue.  Connected TV subscribers tend to have multiple subscriptions to "piece together" the content they want from various platforms.  The subscribers are also realizing that keeping track and paying for multiple subscriptions also adds up and can undermine the seamless/easy experience and some are beginning to downsize or rationalize their subscriptions all together.

It seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same.  In an effort to cut costs and move to connected TV services, the digital generation accidentally increased their cost or kept it the same and also created friction in the overall experience.  Once cable companies catch up and create solely streaming services, what will happen to CTV and the targeted audience for ads?   Well, I hope the Direct to Consumer advertisers enjoy and monetize the wave while it's here!!