TV Has a Long Way To Go Before Shopping Becomes Mainstream

Amazon, Walmart, Roku others keep circling this dream

Connected TV advertising is surging.

Retail Media is positively exploding.

Wouldn’t it be unbelievable if the two massive trends converged?

That’s been the dream, for quite a while - probably ever since TiVo rolled out interactive ads 20 years ago. The DVR pioneer even inked a deal with PayPal in 2012 which promised to enable people buy stuff from TV ads. Use it much? Do you know your PayPal password by chance?

I’m not being a cynic. Many aspects of our modern digital life weren’t in place a decade or two ago to make ‘T-Commerce” a reality (for starters, we first had to get comfortable with actual E-commerce). I still think it can happen.

After all, you have companies as powerful as Amazon, Walmart and Roku pushing to make CTV-ad-shopping a reality. I would just love to tell you that I’ve actually seen one of these ads outside of a demo.

From the outside, it seems as though media companies (and probably brands) are being uber-conservative here for a reason. But if we are ever going to start adding items to our carts from the TV screen - a lot of consumer education needs to take place. And we probably need to all agree on a common T-Commerce mechanism (QR codes? Voice? the remote?)

“Shoppable media or T-commerce has been a hot button topic for years,” said Mike O'Donnell, Chief Revenue/ Strategic Growth Officer at Vizio, on a recent episode of my podcast Next in Media.

Vizio and Home Depot are partnering on shoppable content for the holidays, and are using Vizio’s highly trafficked home page to promote it.

The company knows executions like these are experimental

“I think we continue to get closer to it,” O'Donnell told me. “And by that, I mean, the capabilities are there today… I just don't think the consumers are there yet. I think it's not a habit yet.”

“I think we'll continue to iterate and try different tactics, but I think over time the consumers will eventually get there. I think part of it is on manufacturers like us to continue to make the experience more seamless. Using a remote is a little bit clunky.”

Roku, for its part, is trying to put a shopping ‘tag’ in the same corner of CTV commercials, so that consumers start to recognize and expect these types of ads.

Still, I wonder if the industry almost needs to both unite on tactics, and even worth together on a promotional campaign.

There’s of course the open question of whether TV is the right place for shopping, outside of QVC.

Walmart and Roku have been testing shoppable ads for about a year. “We've seen some success, some great engagement. But I would say it's pretty early in that perspective,” said Rich Lehrfeld, SVP & GM Walmart Connect, who appeared this week on my show.

“I think a lot of people talk about, ‘well, is the big screen really like lean back or lean forward?’ Lehrfeld asked. “Right now, it seems a little more lean back versus when we're looking at, you know, we're on Instagram or on another social channel where we'd be willing to really buy.”

That’s a great point. I wonder, is it the zombied-out, time-killing nature of platforms like Instagram and TikTok which puts people in a more open state of mind to just click and buy something -maybe even something random? Certainly, the data and algorithmic targeting on these apps helps.

Or is it the types of advertisers - many smaller DTC brands - that lend themselves to social commerce, whereas big TV brands may not?

Amazon has touted its ability to prompt users to add items to their carts when you are watching on Fire TVs - but this may not be the way that people shop for CPG brands and groceries and such - at least not yet. At its recent unBoxed event in New York, Amazon was pushing interactive ads that utilized QR codes, which is fine, but seemed to lack the buy-this-now ambition that the eCommerce giant had previous demonstrated.

Still, I’m bullish on this new initiative from Amazon which is aimed at helping thousands of smaller brands to produce TV ads - which could be a way to bring those smaller, easy-to-make-a-snap-decision-on, brands to the tube.

We’ll see. In the meantime, Lehrfeld knows we have work to do. He sees great potential in voice commands, which thus far have underwhelmed.

“I think if we can, as we evolve, and as the pipes get bigger, the ability of voice [can] really activate that shopping,” he said. “So if I'm watching “Hell's Kitchen” or something on the Food Network, where it's just saying, like, get me ingredients, or send me those ingredients, and then we can deliver to them and within two hours, it becomes much easier.”

“Right now it is still experimental… But I think ultimately we'll make it very easy. I think voice will help that.”