Direct-to-Glass: Doing CTV Right

WEBOS 23 WILL BE FOUND IN LG'S 2023 OLED AND LCD TVS. PHOTO: LG

The gist of it: while the CMO of LG Ad Solutions saying, a direct-to-glass strategy offers a competitive advantage in the connected TV (CTV, also known as a smart TV) advertising space may sound self-serving, the fact of the matter is that providing advertisers with better control, targeting capabilities, and insights, ultimately improving the effectiveness of their campaigns, is common sense. However, the chief takeaway is, what do you do if you are in the CTV business and don’t have a direct-to-glass product or strategy? Not a lot or, maybe, a lot of me too product development? No doubt there is a significant revenue opportunity for TV manufacturers, and I don’t believe it needs the scale of an LG to make it work. Advertisers are driven by data and engagement, and with programmatic advertising technologies in abundance, can zero in on qualifiable audience slivers happily.

LG Ad Solutions Explains Direct-to-Glass

This video comes courtesy of TVRev and discusses the benefits and advantages of a direct-to-glass strategy in the context of CTV advertising, specifically focusing on LG Ads as an example. A direct-to-glass strategy refers to the integration of advertising and content directly onto the screen (glass) of a TV, bypassing the need for multiple apps or intermediaries. In this case, LG Ads is able to provide a seamless and more efficient advertising experience for marketers who want to leverage CTV for their campaigns.

Key benefits of a first-to-glass strategy as mentioned in the comments are:

  1. Scaled first-party inventory and data: By working with a massive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) like LG, advertisers can access a large-scale inventory and data set directly from the same provider, which enhances targeting and effectiveness.
  2. Control over the environment: A first-to-glass strategy allows advertisers to have more control over ad suitability and fraud mitigation, ensuring a safe and secure ad environment.
  3. Custom creative solutions: LG Ads offers native creatives and traditional video ads, providing versatility and a wide range of options for campaigns.
  4. Scale and diversity of the audience: With over 130 million TVs worldwide, LG Ads can reach a large and diverse audience, offering deduplicated scale compared to working with multiple apps or platforms.
  5. Holistic understanding of user experience: By using automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, LG Ads can measure and control frequency across both linear and CTV environments, providing insights into users’ viewing habits, content preferences, and ad exposure. This helps advertisers make more meaningful connections with their audience.