Watching TV used to be simple. Your cable provider only offered a couple of packages. And you could only watch programs that were on at that moment. Today, this is certainly not the case. Your options are now basically limitless. You now can record the TV content you want and skip annoying commercials. In fact, you don’t even need cable anymore. Streaming services offer the option of falling into a deep of hole of watching episode after episode of uninterrupted bliss … I mean television.

It has been easy to keep up with the changes in how we can consume TV. If you want to watch something on TV, the method to do that is pretty easy if you have access to Wi-Fi. So people can watch what they want, when they want, how they want. However, as marketers, the path on how to reach a specific audience at the right time with a focused message is much more blurred.

There are many options on how to advertise via television today. It can seem overwhelming. We hear buzz terms like “addressable TV,” “linear TV,” “OTT,” “streaming,” “personalization,” and the list goes on and on. What does it all really mean? Are they all just the same thing disguised by fancy marketing terms? Is it even worth it to personalize the ad experience for TV viewers if they are going to skip over the commercials anyway?

The answer is yes. Yes, it is worth it to show different ads to different households. The various options, like addressable TV, OTT, etc. allow marketers to make strategic decisions based on real-time data. When we comb through all the options out there and try to understand each one fully, then these confusing terms can be turned into tools that give marketers the ability to show the right content to the right household at the right time.

Let’s break it down by referring to what we know, when TV things used to be simple, and build from there to understand how an addressable TV strategy can be used to personalize the television experience.

Back in the day … 2005 specifically … when you sat down to watch a cable program like, “Dancing with The Stars,” on ABC during its scheduled time of 8 p.m. EST, you and your neighbors around the corner or down the street all saw the same ads during each commercial slot.

This viewing experience might not have needed a classification 17 years ago, but in today’s advertising terms, this would be considered a linear TV experience. As a viewer you were watching what was live and available for that ad timeslot on that network. In today’s digital advertising ecosystem, this experience can be improved by using an addressable TV strategy.

Addressable TV provides the ability to segment audiences and show different ads to different households who are all watching the same program. Users with IPTV set-top boxes or connected TVs can receive customized TV ads. For instance, it is obvious by my household’s online and offline behaviors that our family includes a 2-year-old. So, during my weekly viewing of “Dancing with The Stars,” it makes sense that my commercial slots are filled with advertisements concerning the various pull-up options, or the newest and best LEGO set on the market.

Of course, these types of advertisements make less sense to my younger sister who is a newlywed and childless, even if she too enjoys watching the dancing pros on Monday nights. Using an addressable TV strategy versus traditional TV strategy allows more efficient ad buying and audience insights. By targeting the right people for the right things, advertisers save money and can gain insight into who buys and who doesn’t.

The TV ecosystem was changed a step further when streaming was introduced. Streaming allows users to receive continuous digital content via the internet and does not rely on the traditional cable/satellite systems. Thus, over-the-top (OTT) media services were born. All the big players, like Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, etc. can be considered OTT providers.

Addressable TV and OTT can work hand-in-hand when developing a marketing strategy for today’s TV environments. OTT refers to how content is consumed. The data is delivered over the internet. Addressable TV advertising refers to how marketers can reach users on a household level. The two concepts are often used together when trying to understand a person’s affinities and behaviors. This gives advertisers both the right people to market to and a delivery vehicle (OTT) that makes it happen at a reasonable price.

With the ever-changing digital world, TV viewers are used to receiving relevant advertisements, and this expectation does not stop when they are viewing their favorite TV show. Addressable TV allows for ad personalization, which when done correctly provides what all marketers want – higher ROI. The data collected by traditional means like user behaviors, demographic, geographic, and user affinities can all be channeled to provide improved marketing tactics with measurable results.

Yes, the ecosystem is changing, but all areas of TV viewing (OTT, traditional/linear) can be used to implement an addressable strategy that cuts down on wasteful ad spend and improves the user experience.

As we all know, with every change, comes adaptation. In this scenario, the process of using an addressable strategy can be harder for some brands to overcome than others due to many factors like branding and budget. Companies have used TV ads in the past to provide broad and top-of-funnel branding ideas.

These big branding ideas and large TV advertising budgets, while not always effective, did often produce a unified brand perception. As addressable TV strategies continue to grow in popularity, businesses will have to figure out how to produce that wide-range brand style while delivering users a unique ad experience. Budgeting for individual household TV ads might also produce a disadvantage to some advertisers. Granularity in marketing often equals more dollar signs. Businesses will have to evaluate their KPIs and ROI needs to determine which TV advertising style will most benefit them. I assume most will use a combination to give users a big-picture idea of who they are, while using addressable TV strategies to home in on the users who align with their goals.

As with most things, the evolution of TV advertising has come full circle. There is no need to view each television and viewing innovation as a separate hurdle but more as a way to fully connect users and brands in this ever-evolving digital world. Life … and our television options … are full of choices. It’s helpful when the advertising noise is cut down to show us what really makes sense for our life stage. The fact I can be automatically presented with the best pull-up options makes this toddler mom’s life a little less noisy. And for that, I am grateful.