What Did SmartResponse Learn from the Performance Driven Marketing Institute (PDMI) West DRTV Media Conference?

SmartResponse attended the PDMI DRTV media conference this week in San Diego to further investigate and understand how Connected TV (CTV), Video on Demand (VOD) and Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) streaming media has been further integrated into the DRTV media buying/planning process in the US for the benefit of clients.

The PDMI conference is attended predominantly by senior executives from DRTV media agencies and ad tech partners from the US DRTV media market.  It is clear the US approach to DRTV advertising is now quite different to that of the UK in terms of application and platforms utilised on their DRTV media plans.

In the UK, for example, SmartResponse still remain primarily reliant on the linear TV airtime markets to drive profitable immediate performance and attributable monetary ROI from their DRTV campaigns for their diverse client base.  We have run and numerous tests on CTV and VOD to date in the UK to drive immediate profitable sales and the outcomes from these campaigns have all been poor.

The uniform narrative from broadcast media owners in the UK is that precision of delivery of CTV, VOD and SVOD airtime provided to clients to a given target audience justifies the inflated cost of airtime versus linear TV airtime costs - for clarity CTV and VOD airtime is typically 15-40 times as expensive as linear TV airtime in the UK in terms of costs per thousand (CPT) viewers reached.

In the US - arguably the home of the DRTV industry - mainstream media owners are now adopting a far more pragmatic approach in selling cost effective 'Total TV' packages for DRTV advertisers including linear, VOD and SVOD airtime inventory and have in many cases greatly reduced their CPTs for CTV and VOD to the $7-£10USD range.  At this level of media pricing it is understandable that CTV in some cases makes up to 50% of a total given US DRTV advertisers media plan.

SmartResponse have always forecast that due to a limited lack of viewer demand for VOD in the UK - it is still stubbornly low at only 11% of all viewing according to the latest OFCOM Media Nations 2026 report - coupled with the high CPTs charged it is only accessible to a limited number of advertisers that are primarily seeking incremental reach. We assert that market consolidation and a reduction in CTV and VOD airtime pricing is inevitable over time driven by market forces. This forecast market consolidation will in turn hopefully also reduce the current highly repetitive ad breaks that are endemic across all VOD and CTV platforms, as current demand from DRTV advertisers is very limited.

As SmartResponse returns to the UK from the PDMI conference we remain optimistic UK media owners will grasp some of the commercial pragmatism of their US colleagues in relation to CTV, VOD and SVOD in due course to make these platforms accessible to all advertisers including the highly dynamic and growing DRTV sector.

In the last quarter SmartResponse have seen some reduction in CTV and VOD media pricing in the UK market but in truth this needs to go considerably further to reach the point when UK based DRTV advertisers media plans comprise 50% linear and 50% CTV inventory, as is now often the case in the US, and the 'Total TV' concept then has a chance or being viable for all parties - DRTV clients, agencies and media owners alike.

Thanks for having SmartResponse at the PDMI West conference - a great and insightful event. We will be back...