Nowadays every advertiser wants to be a part of CTV: Russhabh R Thakkar, Frodoh World

The growth of Connected TV (CTV) in India has seen significant milestones, driven by a confluence of factors that cater to the evolving preferences of Indian consumers.

With the proliferation of high-speed internet and affordable smart TVs, more households are embracing CTV as a primary source of entertainment. The surge in Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms offering diverse and localised content has also played a pivotal role in attracting viewers to CTV.

Frodoh World, an Indian adtech company specialising in CTV, and interactive ads, initially started purely in digital advertising. This early phase was innovation-centric, with many advertisers hesitant to spend significant amounts of money. In 2023, the company expanded into the CTV, dish cloud, performance, and retail media spaces.

The brand's clients include Tata Motors CV, Ambuja Cement, ACC Cements, William Sons & Grant, Celantis (Jeep), Bridgestone Tyres, Aditya Birla (Grasim), Kotak MF, SBI MF, Lenovo, and Astral Pipes. Russhabh R. Thakkar, founder and CEO of Frodoh World, is bullish on the CTV vertical, predominantly because it is like a new screen that has just come up.

“Mobile had its burst in 2008-2009. Now we are 3.5 crore safe-to-assume households and their consumption is becoming far more relaxing. We have grown up watching TV so the ads are not going to be as intrusive as it is on a mobile. And then there are OTT platforms where people also consume content. The whole platform is designed in a way that brands can capitalise on CTV audiences and the vision is to keep building on this,” he shares.

India is a mobile-heavy user market as smartphones have become affordable, and 4G internet is widely available. This trend has changed how companies advertise, making them focus more on mobile-friendly content to reach their audience.

However, Thakkar believes in the "bigger screen, bigger impact" concept. He says that one will see actor Rajinikanth on TV, mobile, and in cinema halls, and they know where their "wow" factor is going to come in. A big screen will always have that.

“The environment that you are consuming mobile content in will be in the office or while travelling. But if you are at home, you'd rather watch the same video by casting it on your TV because it is visually better. You are also captivating the viewers when they are engaged with the content completely. The CEOs and CXOs of the world today do not have linear TVs but 85 and 75-inch TVs instead. If you want to reach out to a CEO you will have to do a CTV pipeline and reach them on a bigger screen,” he states.

Benefits of programmatic advertising

Programmatic advertising is a way of buying and selling digital ad space automatically, using software and data. Instead of manually negotiating and placing ads, advertisers use technology to show their ads to the right people at the right time. By automating the buying and selling of ad space, it ensures efficient and targeted ad placements.

Thakkar says that while reading posts on LinkedIn about programmatic ads, he learned that around 70-75% of programmatic ads are on CTV. According to him, this is just a natural transition from mobile to CTV and the buys are now becoming programmatic.

“Clients want more transparency of where the ads are getting served because it was a waterfall effect back then where imminent and redundant used to be at play but now it is a clean feed as to what advertisers are getting direct is also what one can achieve programmatically on CTV,” he remarks.

Along with CTV, Thakkar is also bullish about advertising video on demand (AVOD) as it is being picked up by several OTT platforms. There is also a trend of AVOD going regional which includes Aha, Hoichoi, Manorma Max, and Asianet.

“Users have access to content by paying a small fee of just watching ads on CTV platforms. These platforms are growing in this space to ensure that ads resonate with and are receptive to the audience, making them more effective. This model is a great fit for audiences who want to consume content for free. Nowadays, every advertiser wants to be part of CTV because they are now aware of its accessibility,” he comments.

An advice that Thakkar would convey to brands is the importance of understanding their audience. The more they understand their audience from a demographic perspective on CTV consumption, the more opportunities it opens up for creating engaging content.

Speaking on the company’s expansion plans, Thakkar says that Frodoh started in the APAC market and worked with the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Cambodia markets, and that is how it recognised the importance of CTV in everyday plans.

He also claims that India will become bigger because of the sheer reach and population it has. Therefore, the company is working on increasing its global presence and is hiring more people for the APAC market.

“We are working extensively on our retail media platform, which we are set to launch in the coming months. Additionally, we are preparing a report that will feature five one-minute episodes, each discussing industry trends and insights from advertisers, providing the industry with a comprehensive overview,” he says.