This month, adland professionals are focused on a pair of media-buying showcases — last week’s digital-focused NewFronts and the upcoming TV-focused upfronts — that present a chance to take stock of an evolving promoting landscape. Amid privacy challenges, threats to popular platforms and the impact of artificial intelligence (AI), digital ad spend continues to be expected to grow about 10% in each 2024 and 2025, led by continued growth in retail media and connected TV (CTV), in keeping with a recent report by Advertiser Perceptions.
As advertisers shift their spend to those two channels, legacy media conglomerates and retailers with media networks of their very own proceed yearslong efforts to attach content and commerce. These new deals look to capitalize on tech-centered developments in each spaces, fusing the dimensions and brand-building power of CTV with the data-driven, outcomes-oriented capabilities of retail media.
“Media and ad tech firms must form relationships with retail media platforms or risk missing out on one among the few large and quickly growing segments of the digital promoting market,” said Eric Haggstrom, director of business intelligence and head of forecasting for Advertiser Perceptions, in an announcement across the report.
With the upfronts just days away, Disney and NBCUniversal have announced such deals, while Amazon — a number one retail media player with growing video ambitions — has primed the pump for its first upfront event.
Consumer data within the crosshairs
Partnerships between media firms and retailers have steadily increased in the previous couple of years amid the proliferation of media networks and prematurely of the signal loss expected from Google’s again-delayed plan to deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome. First-party data is core to each the retail media proposition and the ad platforms developed by major media players that seek to unite content across channels.
NBCUniversal — a frontrunner in developing the longer term of targeting, measurement and streaming — continued its efforts to show TV right into a commerce-enabled performance marketing channel with this week’s announcement of a new collaboration with Instacart. Expected to launch in Q2 in streaming before moving to linear, the expanded collaboration allows CPG advertisers to succeed in in-market consumers and measure campaigns with the usage of ad exposure and purchase data.
“Advertisers are increasingly prioritizing strategic audiences, and with this partnership, CPG brands will have the opportunity to attach the following generation of grocery shoppers in a highly engaging environment,” said Alison Levin, president of NBCUniversal’s promoting and partnerships, in an announcement.
NBCUniversal was the primary official streaming partner of Instacart, which has continued to construct out its ad platform with moves like powering Google Shopping ads and partnering with third-party verification providers — efforts that helped Instacart receive its first promoting accreditation from the Media Rating Council. The latest deal helps CPG brands connect with high-intent consumers and prove campaign efficacy with closed-loop measurement, said Tim Castelli, vp of worldwide promoting sales at Instacart.
“Consumers can see a CPG’s ad on streaming and get that product delivered to them via Instacart in as fast as an hour,” Castelli said in an announcement. “It’s a win-win for each consumers and brands.”
“Media and ad tech firms must form relationships with retail media platforms or risk missing out on one among the few large and quickly growing segments of the digital promoting market.”
Eric Haggstrom
Advertiser Perceptions
In kind, Disney Advertising today (May 8) announced a collaboration with Walmart Connect that offers advertisers enhanced audience targeting and closed-loop measurement capabilities for brand campaigns across the corporate’s CTV inventory on Disney+ and Hulu, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
A proof-of-concept program will launch in Q2 with select advertisers across categories including CPG, consumer electronics, telecommunications, auto, apparel and beauty before scaling to all eligible advertisers over the following few months. The partnership allows Walmart Connect advertisers to use the retailer’s first-party shopper data for targeting and measurement using Disney’s Audience Graph in programmatic, helping marketers higher understand purchase intent and outcomes.
“Disney is committed to bringing revolutionary solutions to advertisers that tap into unique and actionable first-party data to drive insights, and prove effectiveness through probably the most transformative technology,” said Jamie Power, senior vp of addressable sales at Disney, in an announcement. “Walmart has incredible data insights for planning and measuring, that when combined with probably the most impactful streaming environments — is a winning combination for advertisers.”
Walmart Connect, which saw revenue up 22% in Q4 2023, has previously boasted in regards to the performances of partnerships with video platforms Roku, TikTok and TalkShopLive and has began making overtures to non-endemic brands within the automotive, entertainment, financial services, quick-service restaurant and travel industries. As a part of the deal, Disney will join Walmart Connect’s Partner Lab, which NBCUniversal joined last 12 months.
Partnerships just like the expanded NBCUniversal-Instacart pact and new Disney-Walmart Connect deal are more likely to proliferate attributable to data signal loss attributable to industry and regulatory changes, in keeping with Nicole Perrin, senior vp of business intelligence at Advertiser Perceptions.
“Media sellers are under at the least as much pressure from advertisers as ever before to assist them reach the suitable audiences and prove that their ads have an impact,” Perrin said in emailed comments. “Organizations which have their very own first-party data about consumers that will be used to focus on and measure ads will look for tactics to team up with media sellers which can be privacy-safe for consumers in addition to being protective of the organization’s owned data assets.”
Amazon looms large
Walmart might be a good greater player on the convergence of retail media and CTV if its planned acquisition of smart TV maker Vizio clears regulatory hurdles — nevertheless it won’t be alone. Amazon’s promoting business continues to grow, driven largely by product ads around its e-commerce marketplace, with ads introduced on its Prime Video platform in January showing encouraging early results, per an earnings call last week.
Amazon’s continued focus on Prime Video, together with livestreaming service Twitch and ad-supported streamer Freevee, comes as the corporate readies its upfronts debut on May 14 after years of presenting on the NewFronts. In advance of the presentation, the corporate yesterday (May 7) announced three new streaming TV ad formats that boost interactivity and shoppability on Prime Video.
The new formats, available through the upcoming broadcast 12 months, include shoppable carousel ads that will be browsed during ad breaks, interactive pause ads that feature “Add to Cart” and “Learn More” overlays, and interactive brand trivia ads that present a chance for brand storytelling and several forms of customer interactions. The introduction of lounge distant capabilities expands the provision of ad formats that “go far beyond QR codes,” per details shared with Marketing Dive.
“…Expect heavy competition for streaming ad budgets that can grow at a moderate rate in 2024.”
Eric Haggstrom
Advertiser Perceptions
“We are developing revolutionary experiences to assist brands higher engage with customers, as we work to remodel streaming promoting through our differentiated combination of reach, first-party signals, and ad tech,” said Alan Moss, vp of worldwide ads sales for Amazon Ads, in an announcement. “Ads in Prime Video provide an unparalleled experience for advertisers to deliver on any full-funnel marketing objective – whether it’s awareness, consideration, or conversion.”
The new formats allow advertisers to succeed in Prime Video’s average monthly ad-supported reach of greater than 200 million global customers. Interactivity is quickly becoming table stakes within the CTV space, with Amazon’s interactive ads driving 10-times more product page views and conversions than non-interactive formats, in keeping with company research. The new capabilities, and whatever else Amazon has in store for the upfronts, could set the stage for incremental ad spend down the road.
“In the long term, we consider Amazon will have the opportunity to attract incremental streaming budgets from SMBs that sell on their platform, but we expect minimal contribution in 2024,” Advertiser Perceptions’ Haggstrom said in its recent forecast. “These assumptions might be quickly disproven in the approaching months but expect heavy competition for streaming ad budgets that can grow at a moderate rate in 2024.”
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