Alex Spurzem, Samsung Ads ANZ General Manager, explains how Samsung Ads work, what they can offer the New Zealand market, and how the landscape is evolving.
What is Samsung Ads and how does it fit in the wider CTV ecosystem?
We are the advertising arm of Samsung Electronics and one of the first of our kind in the New Zealand market: an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) with an advanced TV advertising solution. Along with this, we also have our own free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service, Samsung TV Plus. So, we can offer a truly holistic connected TV (CTV) experience for publishers, advertisers, and audiences.
Smart TVs are only getting smarter, and their role as the hub of the home will only grow in importance as audiences use them in more ways. We can help bridge the gap between this growing Smart TV ownership audience, and the advertisers and publishers who want to reach them.
Our unique offering is grounded in our first-party data and audience insights, derived from our proprietary Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology, meaning we help our partners to better understand how Samsung Smart TV audiences are interacting with their TVs across linear, streaming and gaming environments.
Why launch Samsung Ads New Zealand, and why now?
When we first launched in the US back in 2015, it was in response to advertisers looking for insights and solutions to reach the growing cohort of streaming audiences and CTV users. Since then, we have launched in a further 10 markets, and we can see that the New Zealand market is at the right stage for us to now join. Smart TV adoption in the country is growing at a fast rate, including our own Smart TVs, with 50 percent of households now streaming TV content, up from 28 percent in 2020.
This has been driven by the arrival of new and international streaming services, like Disney+ and Apple TV+, but also by the growing popularity of New Zealand’s own broadcaster video on demand (BVOD) services, such as TVNZ OnDemand and ThreeNow.
This has all contributed to a fragmented TV landscape for media planners, who are looking for partners to help them navigate this change. Our ACR data is gathered at the glass level of a Samsung Smart TV, meaning it recognises what content is being played on our Smart TV devices. It’s important because it can help advertisers target or plan against interests, such as sports viewers or to personalise the viewing experience for the TV viewer. One of the major benefits and use cases around the world is to manage frequency or drive incremental reach to hit those viewers that are spending less time with traditional linear channels.
How do you see the TV landscape evolving in New Zealand?
We know that in other markets, streaming is a sticky habit and I’d expect we will see continued growth in all streaming environments; SVOD, AVOD and BVOD. However, if you look at the US it is reasonable to say that we can expect to see the gap between ad-funded and subscription models reduce over time as more Kiwis look to free or hybrid alternatives.
We also know that for New Zealand’s younger population (15–39-year-olds), digital media dominates their consumption. Eighty two percent use online video daily, and 72 percent use SVOD. For 40–59-year-olds, there is still a substantial proportion who also watch SVOD (48 percent), but linear TV is still the top media for this cohort (61 percent). Even YouTube said that CTV is now its fastest growing screen for New Zealanders. Thanks to the bigger screen and quality content, I think more audiences are starting to see that CTV is far and away the most premium device for OTT (over the top) viewing.
This perfectly exemplifies the need for advertisers to diversify their media plans across the different areas of CTV, which includes both streaming and linear. The landscape is only going to fragment further, but with the prospect of more streaming services introducing ad-tier packages, the opportunities for advertisers will continue to grow.
Access to audience insights will be key to accelerating CTV growth in New Zealand and will require partnership with manufacturers like Samsung who can provide first-party data to advertisers.
What opportunities does launching Samsung Ads in New Zealand create for advertisers?
CTV provides the perfect environment for brands to marry the big screen, high quality experience of TV ads with the accuracy of targeting and measurability already seen in digital advertising.
Samsung Ads can provide advertisers with a holistic view of what happens on Samsung Smart TVs. Launching in New Zealand enables us to work with advertisers to position fresh new content and brands within the organic TV viewing experience.
In New Zealand this includes the First Screen Ad placement – our most viewed discovery environment and in-stream video ads served during short commercial breaks on our free, ad-supported streaming TV service, Samsung TV Plus which now has more than 50+ channels in New Zealand.
Premium services such as Samsung TV Plus offer a curated and brand-safe environment for advertisers – an exciting proposition for video advertisers looking for more premium inventory.
By partnering with brands and entertainment platforms, we’re able to enhance every aspect of the content discovery journey by advertising what’s most relevant to the consumer based on their interests. This, in turn, is very valuable for advertisers to help them understand how households engage with content.
Can you give away any insight into your future plans? What will we see from Samsung Ads in 2023?
In the immediate term, our focus is on broadening and strengthening our Samsung TV Plus content offering to give consumers instant access to the best content from some of the world’s most recognizable brands for free.
We put the viewer at the heart of everything, which is why we will continue to strive to offer inspiring, innovative, and privacy-conscious advertising and TV experiences.
Our future ambition is to grow the New Zealand CTV market and bring advertisers and publishers the best in-market advanced TV advertising solutions.
Get in touch for more info be emailing [email protected], visiting samsungads.com, or checking out LinkedIn.
