The Big Game: How to Score a Touchdown With CTV Advertising

The NFL championship is the perfect opportunity for advertisers, from consumer goods like Pepsi to tech companies like Apple and more, to reach football fanatics. Adweek reported over 150 million viewers across traditional television and streaming platforms for last year’s Super Bowl Sunday, as well as a staggering 2.39 billion verified household ad impressions in just 216 minutes.

The Challenge for Advertisers This Super Bowl

A spot during the big game can be costly. Competition for ad space continues to drive up prices, making it difficult for smaller companies or those with limited budgets to effectively reach their target audiences. Fox News, for instance, reported several ad spots exceeding $7 million for the Super Bowl in 2022.

Additionally, with so many companies and brands vying for consumers' attention, it can be hard to reach the right target audience, hence a lot of ads might be seen by the wrong target audience and not generate the desired results. This can make it difficult for advertisers to effectively reach their target audiences and achieve their desired results.

Lastly, with the shift of media consumption, advertisers face the challenge of creating ads that will work well on both traditional television and digital platforms, as more and more people consume content online. This requires a different approach to ad creation and targeting, as well as different metrics for measuring success.

What’s a marketer to do? This leads us to our next point.

Fans Are Watching Streaming TV Ads

While sports like the NFL continue to attract massive amounts of eyeballs to linear TV, streaming is now the single most popular channel for TV consumption in the U.S. overall, according to Nielsen. It attracts more viewers than not only traditional broadcast and cable, but also more time spent than social media, gaming and music. And when it comes to advertising, adults in the U.S. pay more attention to streaming TV than any other media channel, eMarketer found, thanks to the full-screen presentation, immersive experiences and non-skippable ad formats.

How CTV and Streaming Advertising Can Help Advertisers Reach Fans Beyond the Super Bowl

Streaming and Connected Television (CTV) advertising combines the reach of traditional television with the targeting capabilities of digital advertising, allowing advertisers to reach a large and diverse audience with a high level of precision and efficiency.

What’s more, streaming and CTV offer advertisers specific capabilities that are superior to other media, such as addressable targeting, deterministic measurement, campaign flexibility and speed, performance-led optimizations, cost-effectiveness and audience engagement.

And when it comes to return on investment, streaming TV delivers a 30% higher ROI than all other marketing channels, including digital video, digital display, paid search and social, according to Analytics Partners. Streaming and CTV advertising can also provide a more premium, safe environment for brands, which can help build trust and credibility with potential customers.

How CTV and Streaming Advertising Complements Existing Digital and Social Strategies

But CTV advertising isn't just effective on its own. Streaming and CTV campaigns can be a cost-effective complement to an existing online, social or digital advertising strategy or media buys aimed at football fans and other viewers of the big game. By using a multichannel approach, brands can reach potential customers through a variety of platforms, increasing the chances of their message being seen. Additionally, CTV advertising can provide measurable results, allowing advertisers to track the effectiveness of their campaigns and adjust them as needed, making the most of their advertising budget.

Simulmedia’s Unique CTV Advertising Solution for the Big Game

Simulmedia’s TV+© is the only streaming TV advertising platform designed to prioritize an advertiser’s needs. Here’s how we can help you create campaigns that reach your audience — whether it’s before, during or after the big game:

• Our technology allows us to build your audience target by who they are, how they’re watching and what they’re watching so we can confidently reach them at the most high-engagement, high-attention moments and at the most efficient cost.
• Our direct integrations with virtually every ad-supported streaming service, publisher and app (plus every linear network and channel) allows us to place your ads in premium, brand-safe environments with full transparency into where you’re running – including specific high-visibility programming related to the Super Bowl.
• To ensure maximum results with minimal waste, we deduplicate audiences and manage frequency across ad-supported streaming services so you’re not overdelivering your message to the same viewers.
• Our team of experts and TV veterans manage all aspects of your campaign from start to finish.
• We provide more granular measurement of the KPIs that matter to you than you’ve ever enjoyed before while our dedicated Simulmedia team optimizes your campaign for continuous improvement throughout your flight.

In conclusion, as a marketer, CTV advertising should definitely be considered as part of your advertising strategy if it’s sports fans you’re trying to reach. Use this strategy by itself or in conjunction with other channels to create a more cohesive and consistent brand message and reach your target audience in a more effective way.

Find out how Simulmedia’s unique TV+® platform for TV and streaming advertising provides unified access to premium linear and CTV inventory across all networks and publishers. Request a demo or email us at advertise@simulmedia.com.