Let's face it - audience fragmentation is the stuff of nightmares. Picture this: you just spent weeks developing a killer ad campaign, only to realize your target audience is scattered across 15 different streaming platforms, each with its own walled garden of content. It's like trying to corral a room full of hyperactive cats... wearing tiny little jetpacks.

According to Statista, CTV ad spend is expected to grow to 42.4 billion dollars by 2027, but that also means more places to show ads, more devices to manage, and more opportunities for your audience to hide from your well-crafted message. Each platform offers a slightly different version of the streaming experience, and users have embraced this diversity. It’s like a buffet where no one can decide if they want sushi, nachos, or a salad, so they just grab everything and move from one table to another.

And while more options are great for viewers, it’s pure chaos for advertisers. The moment you think you’ve cracked the code, there’s a new service promising "ad-free-but-kind-of-not-really" content. Suddenly, your audience is spread thinner than the butter on a croissant, and it feels impossible to reach them efficiently.

The antithesis to the meteoric rise of fragmentation, thanks to the gazillion (actual number, don't quote me) CTV platforms and devices vying for viewers’ attention, is audience-based selling. Interestingly, CTV is still largely bought on an audience-basis where advertisers focus on reaching specific viewer segments across multiple platforms, apps, and devices. However, from the sell-side, CTV is still predominantly sold on an app, channel, or platform basis, where publishers offer ad inventory based on where the content is being viewed rather than who is viewing it.

This gives rise to inefficiencies on both sides and a barrage of unnecessary intermediaries, each offering something to bring the the two ends of the spectrum closer together but in reality just creating an ever-widening rift - limiting advertisers' ability to reach the right audiences and publishers' potential to fully monetize their inventory.

This is where sell-side curation becomes crucial. By harnessing their existing troves of data (from online behaviors to app usage and even granular viewing habits) and amplifying its value through sophisticated AI/ML modeling, publishers can create hyper-targeted audience segments; meaning advertisers can reach soccer moms, gamers, or avocado-toast enthusiasts with laser precision, whether they’re streaming a cooking show on Roku or bingeing true crime documentaries on Amazon Prime.

Audience-based selling essentially shifts the focus from what platform or show people are watching to who they are and what makes them tick. So, instead of blindly chasing audiences across platforms, audience-based selling by publishers allows advertisers to truly find and target those elusive viewers without constantly checking which app they’re using. The idea is simple: meet the right audience wherever they are, even if they're hopping between Hulu, Peacock, and HBO Max faster than you can say "skip ad."

And for publishers trying to sell inventory in this fragmented landscape, ElementalTV’s AI-powered 1Audience technology is like the best wingman ever. It empowers publishers to curate their own audience segments and sell them directly to advertisers. That’s right, no more middlemen taking a chunk of the revenue pie.

With 1Audience, publishers gain direct access to advanced curation tools that leverage deep data insights, so they can optimize their audience offerings. They’re no longer at the mercy of 3P platforms or data brokers. They’re the ones creating those premium audience segments, offering advertisers a streamlined, efficient path to their desired viewers.

This direct-to-publisher approach doesn't just improve revenue potential - it gives publishers more control over the quality of the ads they run and ensures that the experience is more seamless for the audience. A win-win situation!

Because let’s face it, everyone hates fragmentation, (yes, arguably, even the viewers at times) but with audience-based selling, it can be a little less terrifying, and a LOT more profitable.