Publicis Media’s whitepaper draws up blueprint for Connected TV advertising in India

Growing at an unprecedented rate of 600 times since 2020, Connected TV (CTV) now reaches an estimated 32 million households, and is projected to surge to 60 million by 2025. This translates to 112 million individual viewers – comprising 12% of India’s entire TV audience. TV and CTV optimization is a key area to address.

This key area is revealed in a White Paper on ‘Future of Connected TV Advertising in India: A Blueprint for Integrated TV and CTV Planning’. The White Paper has been brought out by Publicis Media India, in collaboration with Adgully, and is authored by Rajiv Gopinath, Chief Solutions Officer, Publicis Media India; Rahul Beer, Senior Manager - Solutions, Publicis Media India; Rudra Sen, Senior Business Analyst, Publicis Media India; and Parisha Tyagi, Associate Director, Publicis Media India.

The White Paper focuses on the rapid growth of Connected TV (CTV) in India and its transformative impact on the advertising landscape. As India’s digital ad market is expected to exceed $30 billion by 2025, integrating TV and CTV planning has become a strategic necessity. Without a cohesive approach, advertisers risk wasting up to 25% of their budgets due to inefficiencies or overlap in exposure.

The whitepaper advocates for a data-driven strategy that optimizes ad spend across both TV and CTV, balancing reach, geography, and ROI to achieve superior outcomes. The proposed solution integrates linear TV and CTV into a unified plan that maximizes incremental reach while minimizing costs. This whitepaper offers a forward-looking blueprint for advertisers, providing a scientifically backed approach to enhance audience engagement, optimize investments, and lead in the era of targeted, cross-platform advertising.

CTV viewership and reach

According to the Whitepaper, there were 5 million households which used connected TVs in 2020, which skyrocketed to 10 million in 2021, and grew progressively by 150% to 25 million in 2022. In 2023, this number stood at 32 million households. As per industry estimates, by 2025 there will be at least 60 million households which will be consuming content through connected TVs.

In terms of connected TV viewership, in 2023, out of the total 250 million TV households in the country comprising 1,000 million individual viewers, 30 million households were consuming content through connected TVs which translated to 120 million individual viewers. This is nearly 12% of total individual viewers in the country.

The audience base

The Whitepaper states that as per the recent reports, nearly 55% of the high earning households in the NCCS A and B segment are consuming their content through connected TVs. These are affluent households with high purchasing power capacity and are usually the first ones to adopt any new technology or product. They are also called the trendsetters of the consumer durables industry.

Advertising opportunities

Highlighting how brands can utilize this surge, the Whitepaper states that smart TVs are a perfect platform for brands to connect better with India’s affluent sector. Connected TVs help brands understand their audience base better. They also enable the brands to curate personalized ads that are relevant to the targeted audience, thus resulting in a higher chance of consumer loyalty towards the brand.

However, amid the growing popularity and adoption of connected TVs, traditional TVs also continue to hold a significant market in India. The Whitepaper highlights both connected TV and traditional TV as great platforms to bring people together, and for brands to leverage inter-human connections to build and grow their market size, as well as curate their advertising strategies accordingly.

At the same time, the Whitepaper cautions that there is a high chance of budget wastage if marketers have different strategies for both kinds of TVs as there will be a lot of duplication. According to the Whitepaper, budget wastage for brands could be as high as 25%.

Maximizing RoI

In its Whitepaper, Publicis Media has come up with a framework for optimizing and maximizing RoI through integration of traditional TV and connected TV advertising campaigns. Through this framework, first-party data and cutting edge technology are used to tailor media plans to audience behaviours in order to reduce duplication and enhance overall reach. The strategy also emphasizes cost efficiency and balancing investments across traditional TV and connected TV.

The findings suggested that CTV enhanced incremental reach, with contributions going from 12.7% to 17.8%. Cost savings were also quite high. With integrated TV and CTV strategy, savings range from 8% at the 50% reach goal to 12% at 65 and 70% reach goals.”

The key findings from the Whitepaper by Publicis were presented by Parisha Tyagi on the aegis of the recently-held SCREENXX Summit and Awards 2024.

Click here to download the Whitepaper.

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