Walter La Mendola PLuto TV IAB Beyond Digital 2
The advertising investment in Connected TV (CTV) is a segment that has been growing in the region. “We are fully in the era of connected TV, it is the present and the future. The benefits of CTV entail greater scale, immediacy, a large amount of user information, audience segmentation, and data for content creators and for advertisers. We are very excited about the present, but even more about the future of connected TV”, said Walter La Mendola, VP of AVOD and Advertising Sales Alliances for Latin America, Pluto TV, during the panel “Heading to IAB Beyond Digital – Connected TV: The new frontier of digital advertising.”
The panel, hosted by María José Espinoza, General Director of Business, Havas Chile, also included Carolina Solanilla, CEO, PHD LatAm; Leónidas Rojas, Head of Sales and Alliances for the South of Latin America, ComScore, and President of IAB Chile; and Dolores González, Manager of Media and Advertising, Stellantis México.
La Mendola listed the benefits of CTV: solid audience, knowledge about technology, with the greater recall of information and a premium target. “With the right device and the right audience, ads are less intrusive on CTV. You get the accuracy of a digital purchase with the brand safety that traditional TV offers you. It’s the best of both worlds.”
Solanilla said that CTV’s data and technology have been great. “But they have made planning very complex and purchasing very granular. When we focus on connected TV, we realize that it is a reality, that the consumer has moved towards it, which is a huge leap”. She added that there are challenges that “we have to face as an industry, and do it well.”
Stellantis México has been working with CTV for four years now with Claro video, explained Gonzalez. She said that CTV is better when you need to be more precise, and gave as an example the campaign they did for Dodge for the NFL where they were able to segment the campaign by NFL fans. “We managed to maximize investment and reduce advertising waste.”
For Rojas of Comscore, CTV is still an “evolving space in Latin America.” “Measurement is one step behind connected TV, but we are working to have more information on CTV and streaming,” he said.
He gave some statistics. In the US some 90 million households used CTVs in 2021, approximately 7 million more than in 2020. On average, a US household consumes 122 hours of CTVs per year; an average of 21.3 hours of CTV per month and 4.4 hours per day.
Another advantage of CTV, according to Solanilla, is that it has enabled to extend the reach and target specific segments. “It has helped us with the TV plan in order to reach more people.” She also pointed out that it allows interaction with the consumer. “The multi-screen journey is much more interactive and consistent with the user’s journey.” She added that TV was the great medium that began sending important audiovisual messages for brands and that now “CTV helps us bring to life the power of brands in the long term, brand equity.”
