Innovid joins hands with Upwave— will it streamline the journey for CTV advertisers?

Published: June 16, 2023

min read

The popularity of CTV's viewership has skyrocketed in recent years. Statistics show the CTV market is projected to reach nearly $947 billion by 2027. With its viewership steadily increasing among millennials and its capability of directly reaching consumers where they live and view content, more broadcasters and media companies are beginning to invest more in CTV advertising.

As it poses tremendous potential and opportunity for advertisers, tech giants are introducing new features and capabilities to better target audiences via CTV advertising. Needless to mention, recently Google Ads introduced new CTV ad features to help marketers track better, and Walmart Connect partnered with Innovid to deliver personalised ad creatives for connected TV.

Recently, Innovid, an independent advertising platform, announced a partnership with Upwave, a brand advertising analytics platform, to utilize brand KPI signals for automatic creative optimisation through digital channels, including CTV.

The move intends to facilitate funds to move to top-performing ads automatically. This capability is initially available to a limited number of clients.

As a result of this partnership, the ad creatives will be adjusted instantly as brand KPIs such as awareness, consideration, and more move across ad communications and audiences.

The goal of this collaboration is to help advertisers not only understand which ads are driving the most brand outcomes in real time, but also make certain that those ads are served more frequently." Innovid and Upwave are excited to bring together knowledge and action based on that understanding in one platform, ensuring ad dollars are automatically directed to top-performing ads.

Dave Helmreich,

Chief Commercial Officer, Innovid

This strategic collaboration, in particular for CTV, enables advertisers to personalise their CTV messages in accordance with the ads that had the greatest brand impact, enabling advertisers to reach both upper and lower funnel customers.

What does the partnership mean to brands and advertisers?

Indeed, the massive growth of CTV expands the opportunity for brands to reach their target audiences. However, with the rise of competition among brands to bid for similar audiences via streaming media, the CTV ad cost is going up.

On the other hand, to take advantage of their popularity, most of the streaming giants have come up with an ad-supported tier. As an impact, the engagement rate in streaming media is declining, and CTV ad fraud is rising.

Collectively, these are already presenting a huge challenge for advertisers to make the most of their streaming investments. And this necessitates brands to be even more cautious and put in extra efforts to derive the intended results.

At this point in time, we see the partnership between Innovation and Upwave as a thoughtful move and promising for advertisers in the CTV space for various reasons.

As the partnership facilitates automated creative optimisation, brands can ensure that the right message reaches the right audience at the right time. This, in turn, will significantly increase the relevancy of the ad, creating a positive user experience and fostering a connection between the audience and the brand. As a result, brands can see improved engagement and overall campaign performance.
As the integration allows advertisers using the Innovid platform to have a comprehensible view of how their creative campaigns are performing among their target segments, they will be able to gain access to many new valuable data and insights. As a result, they can use those insights to refine their overall marketing strategies and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns.
With automated creative optimisation allowing for real-time adjustments, it can eliminate the need for manual creative iterations and testing for advertisers. This will, in turn, help them save a significant amount of time, which they can use to focus on other strategic aspects of their campaigns. Meanwhile, it smooths the way for advertisers to sharpen their targeting and enhance the effectiveness of their campaigns with less manual effort and time.
The collaboration will allow marketers to more precisely gauge the results of their campaigns. Through this, marketers can gain an in-depth understanding of the success of their campaigns and use it to make informed decisions about budget allocation. Besides, it will enable improved reporting and optimisation, which will eventually contribute to enhanced ROI and campaign success.

Overall, in our opinion, the collaboration between Innovid and Upwave can be a powerful catalyst for advertisers using Innovid to make their streaming media investments effective and achieve better campaign outcomes. And if it turns out to be successful, we can expect more of this kind of partnership in the streaming space.

Author

Pete Johnson

Pete is a MarTech expert guru with a knack for getting diverse MarTech solutions work for brands. He has a wealth of experience in working with a plethora of MarTech platforms that dive Personalized Omnichannel Experiences. When he's not at work, you can find him playing basketball or listening to jazz.