Top TV advertisers and the ongoing tug of war for contested ad space
Eight decades after the first commercial aired on U.S. television, ads have become integral to the TV viewing experience. On broadcast networks such as ABC, NBC, or FOX, primetime advertising times range from an average of 12 to 17 minutes per hour. While audiences are exposed to advertising messages daily, airtimes during top-rated TV shows, sports events, and awards ceremonies are particularly popular among U.S. marketers. This popularity has shot budgets up to new heights: in 2023, the average cost of a 30-second TV commercial during the Super Bowl reached a record seven million U.S. dollars. Another mammoth event for advertising, the Academy Awards raked in 139 million dollars in ad revenue in 2022 – with ABC reigning as the top TV advertiser of the night. Procter & Gamble was the country’s largest spender on both broadcast and cable network TV advertising, followed by a bevy of ad heavyweights, including Amazon and AT&T. When it came to the sectors that poured the most money into TV advertising, media and publishing took the cake, followed by healthcare and finance.
Targeting TV audiences in an ever-evolving multimedia space
As the (pay) TV landscape faces increased competition from over-the-top (OTT) media and other non-linear streaming alternatives, marketers have started to adapt their advertising strategies to the changes in viewing behavior and preferences. In 2022, U.S. spending on connected TV (CTV) advertising stood at 21.2 billion U.S. dollars, and according to the latest forecasts, this figure will more than double by 2026. CTV advertising allows brands to reach their audience on smart TVs and OTT devices, including streaming players or internet-enabled gaming consoles. Given CTV programmatic advertising’s ability to get to an estimated 78 percent of U.S. households and to enable more efficient audience targeting, marketers are increasingly focusing on non-linear video content consumption. Retail media ad spending on CTV devices is also enjoying a boom, with a growth of more than two billion dollars expected between 2022 and 2025.
CTV: merits and challenges
Considering that SVOD subscribers are also less likely to skip ads that are relevant to them, the benefits of placing ad-supported content in new and dynamic TV and video environments are becoming more visible than ever. Among audience-related benefits of CTV, four out of 10 marketers pointed out precision audience targeting. Conversely, marketers deemed measuring incremental reach across platforms and publishers the challenge most likely to affect CTV advertising.
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