PepsiCo’s Take on the Future of CTV Advertising
Looking ahead 12-18 months or more into the future of CTV, PepsiCo Head of Media Strategy & Investment Katie Haniffy sees shoppable advertising, investing more in live events on streaming platforms, and maintaining cultural relevance as key elements of new initiatives to leverage the emerging possibilities of CTV advertising and build fan bases, as she explains in this clip from her fireside chat with OMD U.S. Head of Video Investment & Activation Suzanne Irving at Streaming Media NYC.
When it comes to identifying and leveraging monetization opportunities in the CTV environment, Haniffy says, "We're all about providing some more value. We don't want to be disruptive. We want to provide value during that experience."
This can take a number of forms, she explains. "New ad formats is a big one. I think having a better understanding of the content slates earlier on, so we can take a bigger advantage of major IP" is also important--though it's easier said than done. "That seems to be really hard to do that right now. Our timelines and their timelines are not really in sync at all. So that's something that I think we're hoping to work on as we move forward."
Prioritizing Tentpole Events
One area PepsiCo is paying particular attention to in the streaming world is the growth of tentpole live events in general and sports in particular. "We know that live sports is moving into the streaming environment." She sees sports-adjacent events picking up as well. "We know [Netflix's] Roast of Tom Brady was very successful. How do we start to play in these live events that are on streaming platforms?"
Irving contends that the value of such events stems not just from viewership numbers but also their "cultural impact," and how they enhance "the connection with the fandom that you have." She likens it to the "linear television water cooler moments" and asks Haniffy how cultural impact plays out differently in the streaming era when everyone is more likely to be watching different shows.
"As brands we've always strived to be culturally relevant," Haniffy says. "That gives us our edge over our competition." But building a brand strategy around identifying and seizing standout cultural moments has its pitfalls, she contends. "When I first started at Pepsi, we would think about these big tentpole moments, and we were big sponsors of the Grammys and the Oscars, and other singular events. We called it 'The Big Boom.' And then we couldn't figure out what we did to get to the next tentpole event. So it's kind of like a boom-splat event."
Finding Fans in a Fragmented Premium Content Market
But today's fragmented premium content market has its own challenges and requires a more nuanced approach to capturing fandoms and figuring out where the audience will be. "Now I think there's all these different fandoms across all these different partners and platforms, and there's pockets. So it makes it even harder to drive that fandom, which could be Squid Games, or it could be The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. They're all over different platforms. So it's really about trying to find all those fans and scaling them across the board. And people are fans of the content," she continues. "They don't care exactly what platform it's on. So if a piece of content moves from one streaming platform to another, they're going to follow it. It's just like I'm an Islander fan and if they go to a different channel, I'm going to go watch them there. So I think building that connection with the content and the fan is just more important than ever."
But adapting to new market realities doesn't mean throwing out the old playbook entirely, she says. "Are we still going to be in some of the big cultural events on broadcast? Most likely, yeah."
See more highlights and interviews from SMNYC.
Watch full sessions from SMNYC on-demand.
Join us in August 2024 for more thought leadership, actionable insights, and lively debate at Streaming Media Connect.
Related Articles
Client-side or server-side? Ask 5 streaming adtech experts and you'll get 6 opinions. Streaming Media's Nadine Krefetz asks execs from Roku, Paramount, JWP, Akamai, and Infinitive which they prefer and why in this clip from Streaming Media NYC. Tune in and watch the feathers fly.
18 Jul 2024
The USP of advertising on streaming platforms has always been the heightened opportunity to deliver the right ads to the right users with a specificity inaccessible to traditional TV advertising's monochromatic broad brush. But delivering on that promise remains a work in progress. PepsiCo Head of Media Strategy & Investment Katie Haniffy discusses specific ways streamers can work more effectively with advertisers to help them match the creative to consumer and ensure their ads convert in this interview with OMD U.S. Head of Video Investment & Activation Suzanne Irving at Streaming Media NYC.
11 Jul 2024
Even as a leading global disruptor in premium sports rights acquisition and content delivery, DAZN must contend with the practical realities of serving customers in a broader sports streaming marketplace, and advertising and monetization strategy is inevitably more complicated than placing 15s and 30s and positioning branded integrations and the like, says DAZN Global CRO and President USA Walker Jacobs. Customization, fanbase-building, and more factor into the monetization equation, as Jacobs tells Reality Software's Nadine Krefetz in this candid fireside chat from Streaming Media NYC 2024.
28 Jun 2024
Streaming Media's Tim Siglin interviews Paramount Advertising COO Steve Ellis at Streaming Media NYC 2024. Ellis discusses the growth of ad-supported streaming and Paramount's role as a pioneer in this space, and he highlights the importance of full-episode programming in reaching and engaging audiences effectively. He and Siglin also talk about the new Nielsen gauge measurement that shows the total reach of audiences across all premium publishers and YouTube, and he emphasizes the need for effective ads that align with the objectives of awareness, consideration, and last-click attribution.
30 May 2024
Google TV Senior Director of Engineering Shobana Radhakrishnan discusses ongoing shifts in M&E content consumption like the growth of CTV and streaming relative to traditional linear broadcast, the continued fragmentation of the streaming content market, and how the transition to more advertising-based monetization models will impact the overall revenue picture in 2024-26 in this clip from her Streaming Media Connect keynote.
23 Feb 2024
Ad buying is changing. For example, now you can buy from an agency that has deep knowledge of data around local viewing, or you can go to a TV manufacturer that has deep knowledge of all of the viewing on its hardware.
10 Nov 2023
While the pandemic era has brought a substantial uptick in media consumption, and tremendous growth in streaming, the overall mix has shifted, according to Interpret's Brett Sappington, whose survey findings show fragmentation both in streaming service options and the types of entertainment--gaming, short-form content--coming to the fore, in this interview with Tim Siglin at Streaming Media East 2022.
30 Jun 2022