Day three of Innovation Week and with the theme being consumer technology, who better to share all there is to know about the future of TV advertising than Sky.
Graeme Hutcheson, Sky’s Director of Digital & AdSmart, gave us a quick round up of how the traditional box viewing has been transformed and how their 7 million connected consumers are engaging with TV content in various ways. With content spilling across various screens, from mobile to tablets, the proliferation of consumer touchpoints including Sky Go, Box Sets and Sky Q to audiences are forming new viewing habits such as binge-watching boxsets, sending huge traffic to VOD services.
Therefore it’s clear consumers are taking back control of their viewing habits, choosing how, when and what content to engage with. Live TV certainly isn’t dead, but there is no denying that linear viewership is decreasing in favour for VOD.
Graeme then addressed the most important questions for us OMDers; what advertising opportunities does this shift present? In essence, Sky are focused upon leveraging commercial opportunities. They’re focused on delivering and shaping the lifecycle of a campaign, built upon five key elements rather than just the execution.
- Content
- Scale
- Tech
- Data
- Cross platforms
The prime example is Sky’s revolutionary approach to TV advertising, Sky AdSmart. Spanning 1,020 advertisers, it gives advertisers the ability to target granular audiences and serve various ads to ensure they are talking tactically to their audiences. Ultimately the future suggests TV will continue to be a favoured pastime for consumers, but these dramatic shifts raise issues around if there is still a place for linear advertising at all, or will it transition completely to programmatic.
