ITV is aiming to further boost its streaming platform with a major consumer insight study, aimed at taking a deep dive into how viewers rate the advertising they see.
The study, which is being flagged up during the ad breaks on ITVX, urges viewers to click through using a QR code. This takes them to a separate site where they are asked a range of questions about current advertising campaigns, including creativity, relevancy and frequency.
ITV has yet to respond to Decision Marketing‘s enquiries about the study but the move comes as the platform – relaunched in December – has now officially hit 2 billion streams in the six months to June, surpassing its previous record of 1.9 billion streams over the course of 2022.
ITV’s monthly active users were up 29% year-on-year to 12.5 million in the same period, up 19% since year end. The channel’s revamped platform has also successfully attracted so-called ‘light viewers’, registering a 93% increase in that demographic over the same time period.
Some of the world’s biggest advertisers – including Unilever and PepsiCo – have signed up to trial ITV AdLabs’ retail media solution, Matchmaker, which taps into loyalty scheme data provided by Tesco’s DunnHumby and Boots.
The targeting tool is available on ITVX, and is fully cookieless and consented, using InfoSum’s data collaboration platform to securely match ITV’s 37 million registered first-party audience with Boots’ Advantage Card and Tesco’s Clubcard databases.
However, while the broadcaster continues to innovate, the vast majority of the programmes being run on ITVX have few if any advertisers, other than the main sponsors such as Cupra, which backs the ITV Mystery Drama series.
ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall admitted as much after the company’s recent announcement of a 60% fall in pre-tax profits, dubbing the current TV market as suffering from “the worst advertising recession we’ve seen since the global financial crisis”.
And those hoping that connected TV would be the medium’s white knight have had their hopes dashed with a recent report showing CTV is simply cannibalising existing TV budgets, triggering calls for media owners to do more to turn what is currently a niche market into one with mass appeal and reach.
WARC Media’s Global Advertising Trends report, “Connected TV’s next episode” – published last month – revealed that while CTV adspend is increasing as viewers and advertisers migrate from linear broadcast TV, it is simply keeping overall TV spend stable. In comparison, retail media is growing three times as fast as CTV while YouTube’s ad revenue alone is set to be 17.4% greater.
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