Attention is earned, not given: why quality is king in streaming advertising

Imagine a world where a person’s TV knows what they want to buy before they do - blending together entertainment and commerce. That reality is already here - and the Walmart/Vizio deal earlier this year further crystallized a tectonic shift that's been building for years. As consumers’ lives move further online and on-screen, it was only a matter of time before the two most dominant forces in digital – streaming and shopping – converged.   

There’s proof of this in numbers too. One report found that over 25% of smart TV owners now shop while watching their favorite shows. Second screens are no longer a distraction – they're becoming a revenue driver for advertisers and marketers.

Retailers are building a new way for consumers to shop 

Nobody understands this better than Amazon. The “OG” of e-commerce has stealthily built an ad business that's now bigger than YouTube's by offering "free" content through Prime to drive product purchases and gather priceless consumer data. And at the same time that Walmart was acquiring Vizio, Amazon shifted 130 million Prime memberships to AVOD (Ad Supported Video on Demand). By introducing advertising into this ecosystem, Amazon has created a self-reinforcing flywheel that benefits shoppers and sellers alike. Watch, click, buy, repeat.

Now others want to borrow from this playbook by closing the loop between eyeballs and wallets. Other retailers like Target have started in-house media networks. Studios like NBCUniversal are pushing further into commerce. The prize they're fighting for is to become that indispensable intermediary that influences what people watch and buy, and a one-stop-shop for advertisers to reach and convert audiences across the entire purchase funnel. 

Commerce and CTV connects brand to business outcomes

For marketers, the convergence of CTV and commerce represents a massive opportunity. Imagine being able to show an ad for your product to a household that just watched content relevant to your category. Or retarget viewers who saw your spot with a shoppable offer on their phone. Or optimize your TV campaign in real-time based on actual sales data. This is the holy grail of advertising – the ability to connect brand messaging with business outcomes.

The possibilities are great. But, there are plenty of cautionary tales of promising ad innovations that wound up eroding consumer trust because they were rushed to market without adequate concern for the end user experience, like the proliferation of pop-ups to the scourge of spam to the privacy backlash against unchecked data collection, 

Commerce starts and ends with consumers

The merging of CTV and commerce holds similar potential pitfalls. Will viewers welcome these interruptions or will it feel intrusive? Will the integration of in-video shopping be additive or disruptive to storytelling? How much is too much when it comes to hyper-targeting based on what happens in your living room? The ad companies that come out on top will be those that use this opportunity not just for short-term gain, but to forge long-term bonds with both marketers and audiences.

Retailers, for their part, must bring the same uncompromising focus on customer experience and high quality to media that made them merchandising juggernauts. Authenticity and quality can't be sacrificed at the altar of scale. Brand safety, transparency, and privacy have to be baked into retail media platforms from the ground up. The lines may be blurring, but the rules still apply.

In a world where every screen is becoming a storefront, the advertisers that win will be those that embrace a "commerce everywhere" mentality and develop full-funnel, omnichannel strategies that combine the emotive power of TV with the precision and immediacy of retail media. The key, as usual, is striking a balance – using data to effectively connect the dots across key audiences and anticipate their needs. It will be critical to stay present, but not annoyingly intrusive - adding value, not friction. In short, remembering that behind every device and data point are real people.

As the lines between content and product consumption fade, one truth endures: people want to shop on their terms. The industry’s job is simply to make it easier and more delightful for them to discover and buy what they love. The game is the same, there are just many more ways to play.