Media Monday

Instagram confirms test of 'unskippable' ads

By Kristen McCormick, Situation Senior Media Buyer

Instagram is conducting a trial of unskippable ads. These new ad breaks will display a countdown timer in the app’s feed that stops users from being able to browse through more content on the app until they view the ad. Although Instagram has confirmed the test, specifics about its duration or extent are not disclosed. This experiment has sparked concerns among users regarding its potential impact on user experience. However, it also presents a promising opportunity for advertisers to engage with a captive audience.

Read more on TechCrunch .

TikTok World 2024 Debuts New Ad Solutions and Creative AI Tools

By Victoria Edmonson, Town Hall Media Buyer

TikTok recently held their 4th annual TikTok World product summit where they debuted a new set of ad tools with a focus on generative AI and automation. These new ad solutions include the debut of two new hubs helping brands streamline and scale the creative process, TikTok One and TikTok Symphony. TikTok One moves various creative tools, including the previously existing TikTok Creator Marketplace, into one place where brands can access creators and agency partners. TikTok Symphony is a new Creative AI suite that can help with tasks like scriptwriting, producing a video and optimizing assets. A Duet feature was also added to its Branded Mission ad product, letting brands invite TikTokers to collaborate on video content.?

In an effort to help advertisers meet users wherever they are on their purchase journey, TikTok is introducing new performance automation and measurement solutions. Automated performance solutions will maximize business outcomes for advertisers, the new TikTok Shop marketing optimization solution will help automate bidding, budgeting, ad management, and creative for TikTok Shop products, and Unified Lift will integrate brand and conversion lift studies to evaluate TikTok's incremental impact on your business. To meet other platforms like Meta, TikTok continues to add full-funnel ad tools supporting growth and engagement. Read more about the 4th annual TikTok World product summit here .

The State of CTV Advertising

By Elissa Hickey, Situation Media Coordinator

TVision and DoubleVerify released their Q1 2024 State of CTV Advertising Report on May 30th, and the results are in - connected TV advertisements are trending to outperform linear TV advertisements. Compared to Q4 2023, CTV ad attention increased by 2.3%, and Premium CTV Apps (ie: apps where consumers can choose from an ad-supported or ad-free subscription tier) had an increase in ad attention of 4.4%. Meanwhile, linear TV’s ad attention only went up a mere 0.5% from Q4’23 to Q1’24.

The report also found that YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu were the top three apps according to share of time spent viewing. Additionally, Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV Apps (like the Roku Channel) saw an increase in household reach of roughly 9%.?

Interested to read more? Check out this article from Marketing Dive and this brief from TVision Insights .