Need to include connected TV in media plans: Priti Murthy

Priti Murthy, president, GroupM Nexus, conveyed the nuts and bolts of how the group is planning strategies that cater to both linear and connected TV at GroupM Finecast’s ‘Addressable TV and Beyond’ event. 

 

Contextualisation is key and with the connected TV consumption surge, brands in today’s market can hit the bull's eye by targeting cohorts markets according to the data provided to them. 

 

Talking about this contextualised approach, Murthy stated, “Today, TV viewers can be targeted at a pin code level. It allows planners to change the language according to a broad-based audience on connected TVs.” 

 

However, she pointed out that, while catering to a connected TV audience, the fundamentals of marketing remain the same. 

 

“Marketers still want to reach more consumers, talk to them more often, always run a campaign and address certain markets at large”, Murthy remarked. 

 

She added that optimisation is key while combining both linear and connected TV formats to deep dive into cohorted audiences. 

 

For building integrated TV plans, Murthy suggested that planners need to keep incremental reach, localised targeting and premium audiences at the core of their media plans. 

 

To cater to this emerging audience, GroupM has launched mScreen, which looks at linear and connected TV data, to garner incremental reach for a particular budget, market, project and media plan. 

 

Explaining about mScreen, Murthy said, “By synthesising these two ecosystems of linear and connect, marketers will be able to garner efficient data as we move towards a more connected environment.”

 

Along with different formats of viewing content, there is also a target audience that doesn’t need an integrated approach as they are only on connected TVs. 

 

Speaking about this market that is materialising in the media ecosystem, Murthy, stated, “Today kids are growing up in a connected TV world. They haven’t used cable TV and don’t know how to operate it. This is the reality we are living in. Thus, going forward if we want to cater to this younger generation who will have purchase decisions in some years we need to learn and invest in various scenarios to make connected TV more brand-friendly."

 

Murthy signed off by saying, “Connected TV is our future, it is what we need to include in our media plans. It is time to revolutionise our plans by integrating connected and linear TV to provide optimal brand solutions."