How HK marketers can maximise their CTV investment

Connected TV advertising, which can reach target TV viewers that traditional advertising cannot, has gained immense popularity as an advertising platform among APAC brands in recent years. 

According to Omnicom Media Group’s (OMG) latest 2024 APAC Trends Report, CTV and smart stick ownership are growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 6.5%. CTV's popularity in APAC is driven by a 13% increase in viewer attention compared to traditional TV and a six-fold increase in conversion rates for streaming ads, according to the report. 

As the pandemic accelerated mass digital adoption, Asian consumers have subscribed to more media channels than ever, using an average of 7.6 channels to engage with brands based on a 2022 report conducted by Kantar and revealed by The Trade Desk.  

This is pushing many CMOs to stretch their marketing budgets across multiple channels. The OMG report also showed that over half (57%) of APAC marketers are already shifting at least 40% of their ad budgets to CTV. 

Growth of CTV ad market in Hong Kong  

While APAC marketers are shifting their ad budgets to CTV, it is observed that more advertisers in Hong Kong are recognising the value of advertising on CTV as well, according to Chris Ngan, general manager, Hong Kong and Taiwan, The Trade Desk. 

In fact, Hong Kong is host to key players in the OTT market, most notably Viu and myTV SUPER, streaming services owned by national broadcasters PCCW and TVB, respectively. 

For example, Now TV has recently launched the first addressable TV advertising service in the city to enable more precise campaign targeting for enterprises. The advertising deployment technology seamlessly integrates personalised commercials across more than 40 linear channels on Now TV spanning news, finance, sports, movies, drama and entertainment. 

“This is attributed to the dual benefits that CTV brings - delivering an immersive content experience for consumers and enabling precise audience targeting for brands,” Ngan said.  

Adding to his views is Jason Barnes, chief revenue officer, APAC, PubMatic, who said that Hong Kong’s mature streaming media landscape, willingness to adapt and strong industry influence that extends beyond its borders speaks to the growth in its CTV ad market.  

Despite the growing demand for CTV advertising in Hong Kong, Singapore has a higher allocation of CTV spending compared to Hong Kong, despite their similar population sizes, as observed by Wei Hsueh, country manager, APAC, Equativ. 

“This discrepancy could be partially explained by a limited ad supply in Hong Kong due to the dominance of a few players, as well as a wait-and-see approach from advertisers hesitant to embrace a new marketing channel,” Hsueh added.  

How can marketers maximise their CTV investment? 

For marketers facing multifaceted challenges, especially after Google phasing out third-party cookies, CTV has become an undeniable marketing channel, according to The Trade Desk’s Ngan. “CTV stands out as an unmissable and effective solution for addressing identity challenges as it does not rely on cookies while offering many other benefits,” Ngan said. 

As CTV may continue to demonstrate even greater potential in the future, Hong Kong marketers can adopt a CTV-centred, open internet-based omnichannel marketing strategy to maximise the return on investment in CTV, Ngan suggested. 

Furthermore, Hong Kong marketers can unlock the benefits of CTV as both a branding and performance channel by understanding the content they’re buying against, leveraging the efficiencies of programmatic trading, and investing in a “total video” approach to target audiences at scale, said PubMatic’s Barnes. 

On the other hand, publishers should also create diversified content to acquire more users and as a result increase the ad supply on CTV placements, said Equativ’s Hsueh.  

“We should embrace the unknown. Both advertisers and publishers could try to do more to escalate the growth of the new channel with testing spirits,” Hsueh added. 

Join us this coming 26 June for Content360 Hong Kong, a one-day-two-streams extravaganza under the theme of "Content that captivates". Get together with our fellow marketers to learn about AI in content creation, integration of content with commerce and cross-border targeting, and find the recipe for success within the content marketing world! 

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