The trend: Streaming is becoming a critical investment for marketers as the format evolves and continues to chip away at linear TV’s dominance.

In an exclusive EMARKETER interview at Advertising Week New York, Reed Kiely, director of data insights and trends at the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), outlined how marketers can tap into streaming’s potential and what will define success in a fragmented ecosystem.

His key insights:

• Marketers have unique opportunities in the streaming ecosystem given its combination of precision and scale, particularly with formats like shoppable ads and capabilities like contextual targeting. Shoppable advertising is “a good way to drive bottom-funnel outcomes directly on the screen in a measurable and attributable way,” said Kiely.
• Meanwhile, context is becoming king in connected TV (CTV), giving brands the ability to to reach key audiences through relevance. Contextual methods grow even more powerful when adopting tools like AI for creative versioning, Kiely stated—and he expects this trend will only accelerate.
• But fragmentation across platforms remains a pain point that requires brands to operate across data siloes. “As [streaming] technology develops, advanced metrics and outcomes through measurement will help overcome challenges,” Kiely said.
• Though content is the main differentiator among platforms, Kiely noted that user and ad experiences will further separate offerings. In the long term, “the best data and cleanrooms … will be most attractive to advertisers,” he said.

Zooming out: CTV and over-the-top (OTT) content is gaining importance for brands as audience attention shifts to streaming.

With traditional TV viewership declining, streaming subscriptions outpacing TV subscriptions, and cord cutter households rising, brands are being called to invest in CTV and OTT more than ever—and the format presents unique opportunities.

• Streaming offers the possibility of innovative ad formats not possible in the traditional TV landscape—from pause ads to interactive formats like polls and QR codes. These formats have proven effective at driving action for advertisers, and they continue to evolve.
• CTV’s advanced targeting and measurement capabilities allow advertisers to leverage richer user data for more precise advertising campaigns. Emerging efforts to define measurement standards, such as those led by the Joint Industry Committee (JIC), “will drive innovation and push for the most accurate and thorough measurement,” Kiely said.

What marketers can do: Follow audience attention and gradually allocate more budget to streaming services—but “prioritize quality content and ad experiences” as fragmentation heats up. More providers are sure to enter the market in coming years, and not all will offer equal value to advertisers.

Remaining selective and remembering that “if the CPM is too good to be true, it probably is,” will help brands distinguish the platforms with staying power from those likely to fade into the background.