Global programmatic media partner MiQ has seen extraordinary success serving more than 2,500 advertisers and agencies globally. For these clients, MiQ offers a full spectrum of programmatic services across every advertising vertical.
Increasingly, that means bringing advanced data strategies to bear on streaming platforms like Roku.
We sat down with Moe Chughtai and Sara Sowsian, Director, US Product Partnerships at MiQ, to discuss advertisers’ growing focus on performance and the exciting convergence of retail media and CTV.
Has MiQ observed a “race to performance” in streaming ads?
Every year, performance marketing budgets grow faster than branding budgets, Chughtai says. At the same time, several developments have made it easier to measure the outcomes of streaming campaigns. The convergence of retail media and CTV, improved data interoperability and the rise of data clean rooms have given brands more opportunities to bring a performance mindset to their streaming campaigns.
“As a result, we're seeing a real orientation of marketers to demand performance from a channel that historically was about reach and awareness,” Chughtai says.
But MiQ also views branding and awareness objectives as critical to overall brand health.
“If you're not investing in educating consumers that are not already engaging with your brands, that is going to result in a natural deterioration of an understanding of your brand over time,” Chughtai says. “We share that message, but we also realize how important it is for marketers to have the accountable outcomes that their finance teams are expecting of them.”
How does MiQ approach the differences in linear, social, streaming, and programmatic?
MiQ applies an audience-first investment lens to all of its planning on behalf of brands.
“The most effective way to help an advertiser see the streaming opportunity or the social video opportunity, is to overlay their first-party purchase data with high-quality data about what consumers are doing in different parts of the world,” Chughtai says.
To accomplish this at scale, MiQ partnered with the major players in each channel, as well as in different global regions, to build an “ecosystem of data.” Advertisers can then tap into these integrations to understand where their desired audiences spend their time.
“In Roku's world, that is the Roku audience data, its ACR data,” he says. “We help our advertisers to overlay a first-party audience within a clean room and see what the opportunity is to reach that audience in streaming within Roku’s ecosystem.”
In CTV, programmatic ad demand and supply are growing. How will that impact how this channel is bought, optimized, and measured?
As a programmatic specialist, MiQ has been excited to see how marketers have pulled the industry toward a programmatic-first mindset.
Advertisers are attracted to programmatic because they want a single view ofan audience across all the different platforms and publishers that matter to their customers, Chughtai says. Programmatic lets advertisers understand the overlap of their audience across these platforms, holistically manage frequency, and easily attribute credit for conversions.
“In an environment where audience attention is fragmented, programmatic allows you to put everything in one place and have more unified measurement for a CTV campaign,” Chughtai says.
He adds that the shift of upfront dollars to CTV has led to more data sharing on the part of publishers who are eager to prove that their media drives results. As a result, some are lowering their garden walls, creating a healthier ecosystem.
How does MiQ view the convergence of CTV and commerce? What comes next in this area?
When retail media networks first emerged, they were focused on display and online video, and shopper teams wanted to see sales lift or ROAS on specific products. But Sowsian points out that Retail Media Networks (RMN) use cases have extended to CTV and across the marketing funnel.
For MiQ and its clients, combining CTV with retail creates opportunities at all stages of the purchase funnel. Established brands that already have strong brand awareness can lean into commerce as a way to drive performance, while smaller brands can use it to boost brand awareness.
Long-established brands like Coca-Cola are likely to see significant sales lift and ROAS for their retail CTV campaigns due to extensive brand awareness. But, that’s not necessarily the case for startups with new products and smaller footprints.
“We want to point those clients in a different direction,” Sowsian says. “Instead of only focusing on performance, why don't we start with awareness? We may use more upper-funnel tactics, which is where we started to see CTV come into play initially, and pair those with a brand lift study.”
Going forward, Sowsian believes the full-funnel nature of CTV and retail will drive more interactivity and draw wider interest from non-endemic brands.
How does MiQ think about ads on Roku’s Home Screen and the ability to engage streamers before they dive into content?
For Roku’s 85.5 million streaming households, the Roku experience is the lead-in to all television.
“When I turn on my Roku TV, I see the home screen. From that starting point, I may visit a variety of channels, some ad-supported and some not,” Chughtai says.
MiQ leverages Roku’s powerful home screen formats to connect with audiences at scale before they decide what to watch. In some cases, these ad placements may be the only opportunity to reach viewers before they dive into a movie or TV series.
MiQ sees growing excitement for the Home Screen ad units among brands, Sowsian says.
“You can't just run the same retailer data segments repeatedly and expect new and robust results each time. A strategy that pairs retail data with impactful inventory is the recipe for continued growth and excitement in this space. We are seeing clients being open to engaging in these new formats and aware of how powerful that Home Screen can really be.”
In the last year, Chughtai has been heartened to see that advertisers largely understand the value of CTV.
Bonus: What are you streaming?
“‘Tell Me Lies’” on Hulu,” Sowsian says. “I can't get enough of it. That's my ultimate binge for the fall.”
Chughtai’s guilty pleasure: “I'll blame my fiancé, who is a big fan of ‘Love Is Blind.’ We're watching the new “Love Is Blind Habibi,’ which is hilarious.”
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