Ad Pays 7: Dame Carolyn Mccall DBE – What does the future hold?

In the recent Ad Pays 7 report from the industry’s think tank Credos on UK advertising’s digital revolution, a series of leading figures from across UK advertising were asked the question: As the digitalisation of advertising continues to develop what is the most important challenge and the most important opportunity for your business?

In the fourth of of a series of extracts from the leaders’ answers to the question we are featuring the response of Dame Carolyn McCall DBE, CEO, ITV.

Dame Carolyn McCall DBE – CEO, ITV

“For ITV the biggest opportunity the development of digital advertising has brought us is being able to offer the best of both worlds to advertisers – mass simultaneous reach on linear TV and a more targeted advertising proposition on The Hub. 

The Hub now has over 27 million registered users and over 75% of 16-24s are registered already. This gives us the opportunity to deliver addressable advertising campaigns targeting specific viewers by filters such as age, location or the device they’re using.  

We’ve outlined our ambition to grow our targeted advertising capabilities in the future and are well advanced on how we grow and develop this going forward. It will be an exciting part of our business giving us the ability to meet a wider range of advertiser needs. 

The most difficult challenge for broadcasters has been the swing towards the “new”. The feeling that whether it’s effective or not, “digital” has to be used and the financial incentives to do so have augmented that. 

The push from advertisers for greater transparency in light of some highly publicised issues is welcome and I hope this will redress the balance. TV is under indexed. Human beings buy products not robots, and all programmatic advertising has to evidence transparently that it is working to stimulate purchase. 

ITV will continue to communicate the enduring benefits of TV as the most powerful medium to reach millions of people every day in a fraud-free, brand-safe environment and our new addressable capabilities will provide a fantastically effective combination of both reach and targeting. 

Digitally native brands already see the value of advertising on TV and the immediate response from consumers, and their spend has increased 10% year-on-year because of effectiveness.

Whether that’s spot advertising from brands like We Buy Any Car or Just Eat’s sponsorship of The X Factor, to Missguided’s product placement that increased sales by 40%. That’s effective communication which results in growth for companies and that is what matters to advertisers.”