Revenue chief says addressable TV offers 'huge opportunity' to attract 'long tail' advertisers that traditionally invest in digital.
Addressable advertising is attracting new entrants to TV advertising and is viewed by ITV’s top brass as the broadcaster’s biggest opportunity for future revenue growth.
ITV is on track to smash its advertising revenue record set in 2015 to the tune of about £100m.
Earlier this week, the TV broadcaster reported that in the first nine months of this year, total revenue had increased year on year by 28% to £2.38bn, and ad revenue was up 30% to £1.35bn. It was up about 9% on 2019 revenues.
This compares favourably with predictions that the TV ad market will rise by 22.9% this year – more than reversing an 11.8% decline in 2020.
Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday (11 November), ITV chief revenue officer Kelly Williams put the record-breaking growth down to four factors.
First, large advertisers including Unilever, Procter & Gamble and L’Oréal have returned with larger TV advertising budgets, which Williams described as “a correction” after years of investing heavily in digital platforms.
“I think that's down to the fact that they have come back digitally mature, they've worked out what works for them, and what doesn't work,” he said.
“There was a kind of a shift from performance marketing to brand building during the pandemic and that's stayed with us. So a reevaluation of TV around trust and brand building.”
The second factor is that ITV changed its rules for booking ad spots during the Covid pandemic, ditching penalties for bookings not made either weeks ahead. This added flexibility led to revenue growth and ITV has removed booking penalties permanently.
Williams said ITV has recorded “exponential growth” in ecommerce and direct-to-consumer brands that have scaled and are investing in TV advertising, where previously they would have focused their marketing budgets on paid search and social media.
“We're seeing it right across every category,” Williams said. “Whether it's banking or food delivery or direct-to-consumer mattresses or holidays, we're seeing these digital disruptors coming into TV.”
The final factor, which excites ITV’s revenue the most, is its addressable advertising proposition.
“We launched Planet V as a self-service proposition 12 months ago... we had no programmatic presence in the UK and we are now the second biggest video programmatic platform,” Williams pointed out.
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