CTV has arrived, but ad spends haven't: Frodoh's Russhabh R Thakkar

As connected TV (CTV) consumption continues to outpace advertising investments in India, adtech company Frodoh has unveiled a suite of new solutions aimed at helping brands better measure, personalise and optimise campaigns on the medium. 

At the exchange4media CTV Conference, Russhabh R. Thakkar, Founder and CEO of Frodoh, highlighted what he described as a growing disconnect between audience consumption patterns and advertising investments in the connected TV (CTV) ecosystem.

Thakkar argued that while a significant share of viewing has shifted to CTV and OTT platforms, advertising spends have not kept pace. 

"About 52% of India's viewing has moved to CTV and OTT, but only 15% of the spends followed. If TV is not growing and CTV is growing, then naturally the spend should come towards CTV," he said.

According to Thakkar, the industry has moved beyond the early stages of CTV adoption, where planning and reporting tools were the primary focus. As advertisers become more familiar with the medium, the conversation is increasingly shifting towards measurement, attribution and business outcomes.

As part of this effort, Frodoh announced the launch of CTV Verified Business, a measurement solution designed to help advertisers establish a more direct connection between ad exposure and consumer actions. The offering uses pixel-based tracking to identify users who visit a brand's website after being exposed to a CTV advertisement, providing marketers with an additional way to assess campaign effectiveness beyond conventional proxy metrics.

Thakkar also outlined how advertisers can use pixel-based signals to reconnect with consumers across devices. For instance, brands can identify users who have abandoned online purchases and re-engage them through sequential communication on larger screens, with the aim of improving campaign relevance and understanding audience behaviour across touchpoints.

Beyond measurement, the company is focusing on analytics capabilities that offer deeper visibility into campaign performance. These include insights related to viewing behaviour, dayparts, device types, screen sizes and OEM-level performance, enabling advertisers to make more informed media planning decisions.

A significant portion of Frodoh's strategy is centred on regional audiences and the growing importance of smaller OTT platforms in Tier II and Tier III markets. Thakkar said several regional OTT platforms have crossed 100 million downloads and collectively represent a sizeable audience opportunity.  

He argued that brands looking to personalise communication at scale could benefit from leveraging these platforms to reach consumers in specific markets and linguistic regions.

Frodoh has introduced advertising placements on OTT home screens, which Thakkar said are designed to integrate with the user experience while giving brands visibility during the content discovery stage. 

"Regional Bharat's story is real. The medium has arrived, but the money hasn't," Thakkar concluded.