How CTV Improves the Viewing and Marketing Experience With Tal Chalozin of Innovid

The digital transformation of television was to be expected, and both viewers and marketers can greatly benefit from this transformation into streaming

Even though linear television has dominated the market for a long time, connected TV is slowly but steadily taking over the ‘screen.’ And observing this digital transformation of television is exciting, to say the least. The benefits of CTV are truly endless, not just for viewers but also for marketers. From more control over what you watch to the more affordable prices of your monthly subscriptions — what’s not to love about the digital age of television?

But, without a doubt, the most significant benefit of CTV advertising is accessing more data and improving the user experience. In this episode of the Identity Revolution podcast, our host Cory Davis welcomed Tal Chalozin, the CTO and co-founder of Innovid, an ad tech firm focused on the creative optimization and measurement of video ad serving. They talked about the benefits of CTV advertising, the role of measurement in this digital transformation, and the biggest predictions for the future of TV.

The transformation of television was inevitable

Until recently, linear television was all we knew. But even though it’s still one of the most dominant forms of TV viewership, other players have recently joined the TV market. Connected TV is one of them. But the digital transformation of TV wasn’t a surprise to anyone. On the contrary, as Tal says, it was pretty obvious that it would happen sooner or later.

“We started back in ’07, a little after Google acquired YouTube, and that was the time that Hulu was kind of in inception mode. And back then, the idea of the television moving to the internet seemed like a pipe dream. But it was obvious for us that it would happen. We had no clue what the components of it would be. Obviously, a lot of things are pending right now, but it is obvious that, for the lion’s share of time, people will spend watching television so this experience will not go away, but it will get replaced by a different cable.”

Everyone understands that this is the future of TV

When talking about the new forms of TV viewership, an important question arises: do key decision-makers understand that CTV is the future? According to Tal, no one is challenging the power of streaming. “The biggest thing is to explain what I just described, clearly and in a much more in-depth manner, to a lot more public market investors that were pleasantly surprised to see that everyone is unanimous — that everyone understands that this will happen. We thought that we would need to explain to people about this transformation, but thanks to Roku and Netflix and many other companies like Disney+, streaming is a given.”

Better TV experiences on the web

Because of the digital nature of CTV, advertisers will have a much better opportunity to do their job. With access to more data, they’ll be able to deliver better TV experiences on the web and give viewers exactly what they want.

It’s a win-win situation for both viewers and marketers. Tal explains, “One of the biggest things is that there will be a lot more data going back, and you can improve the experience. The experience means that the ad could be better personalized, interactive, shoppable, and rotating the right message to you. So there are many manifestations of that, but what we really thought about is that it needs to be a better experience, both for marketers and for viewers.”

Measurement will play a key part in this transformation into streaming

However, the effectiveness of your ads will depend on measurement, among other things. According to Tal, measurement will play a vital part in the digital transformation of TV.

“We believe that measurement will play a key part in this transformation into streaming, as more and more marketers understand that they can measure more and they would like to correlate more business metrics with their marketing spend.”

CTV unlocked the advertising potential

Another significant benefit of CTV development is that it will unlock the potential for different types of advertisers to advertise. Tal says, “Those are the main advertisers in linear television, but we always were sure that as television moved to streaming, it will not only create a better experience for viewers and for marketers but also open the floodgates to many more types of advertisers that would like to advertise and lower the barrier to entry.”

The future will be much more fragmented than it is right now

Despite what many people think, the TV market doesn’t have to be a winner-takes-all market. Sure, tech companies and giants will always compete for customers’ attention. But Tal thinks everyone can jump on board and bring something valuable to the table.

“It could be multiple companies that will each take a single layer here or multiple layers, and a client can pick and choose. And also, seeing what’s going on right now, it’s not that there’s a single company that needs to own the whole market. It could be multiple. So the bottom line is that I think that the future will be much more fragmented than it is right now, with different companies selling technology that is related to data and its visualization and tools that are on top of that data. Again, planning, forecasting, campaign measurement, and campaign analytics.”

Will the future of television look like TV or like digital?

We cannot help but wonder: what does the future of TV hold? Can we expect to see more technological advancements or potentially new forms of entertainment? One thing’s for sure: we’re very excited to be a part of the so-called digital revolution and to live in today’s digital age.

“Here comes digital that did a lot of things, but one big thing about this conundrum of the buying-and-sales side is that it pushed a lot into the buy-side. Programmatic, DNP, and many other things pushed a lot of technology to the buy side. I think an interesting step — if you kind of study history and say what the future would be — is just fast-forward, we’re clearly kind of in a musical-chair-type of moment in what would the future look like? It’s an interesting question. Will the future of television look like television or look like digital? So that’s one very interesting thing, at least considering the two sides. Who will be the bigger buyer of technology, and who will be the owner of more data?”

Note: This is based on an episode of Identity Revolution, Infutor’s podcast featuring data-driven experts discussing all things marketing, analytics, and identity. We take a deep dive into industry trends, strategies, and the future of data technology.