Masters of CTV: Stefano Cariddi

Where do you work and what do you do?

I’m Digital Lead at PHD Italy, where I’m responsible for all the digital media activity for clients from across several industries.

What role does CTV advertising play in your role?

With CTV being a key and rapidly growing channel, it’s fundamental in my role. We work in an industry that evolves rapidly every day and, as consultants, it’s imperative that we’re always up to speed on the new opportunities available in the market.

We are facing an increasing digitalisation of media, and CTV is absolutely at the forefront of this; it’s vital to the process as it has already disrupted one of the more traditional mediums, linear TV.

What success have you had with CTV advertising?

From the moment we began to include CTV advertising within our media mix we obtained positive results. It’s a channel that is able to generate great media value whilst delivering a strong impact. We are able to deliver cost-efficient advertising experience to highly engaged viewers.

How have you seen client interest in CTV advertising change?

As with all industry disruptors, an educational approach is crucial for explaining the main elements of this new channel; for example, how to consider it and how it fits within the wider strategy. Clients are always curious about emerging technologies, and now the key aspects have been accepted, they are beginning to increasingly adopt CTV into their plans.

What are your predictions for the future of the CTV advertising industry?

There are many possible predictions I could talk about here, but one stands out above the others in terms of impact on the advertising industry. That is the impact of the big streaming platforms.

The CTV landscape is heavily influenced by decisions coming from the big streaming platforms. Considering the evolution of the market, we know that most CTV owners watch streaming content. In light of the introduction of Ad-supported subscription tiers by the big platforms other will likely follow suit and as a result CTV has the potential to become the biggest advertising channel in the mix.