Top video marketing tips: It’s time for advertisers to go ‘over the top’

Over-the-top (OTT) promoting enhances linear TV campaigns and to reply advertisers’ want for premium video content material, flexibility and outcomes supply. Kevin van der Straat, Director Global Solutions & Innovation at Xaxis, outlines the rising alternative for OTT promoting and the rewards that may include it.
Last yr was inevitably robust for the TV promoting business, with pandemic-related financial uncertainty, cancelled programming and the abrupt suspension of movie and collection manufacturing inflicting UK TV advert revenues to fall by 10% in 2020, in accordance to the GroupM end-of-year forecast.
While the outlook for the coming months is promising – with a ten% acquire anticipated in 2021 and a return to pre-pandemic ranges forecast for 2022 – advertisers are nonetheless quickly adapting their method, with many viewing the new yr as an opportunity to revise and restart advert methods. First, they’re decreasing reliance on dwell programming, which remains to be unpredictable, and changing it with acceptable substitutes reminiscent of premium video content material in the leisure, life-style and gaming sectors. Second, advertisers are in search of larger flexibility. They are working in pause and shift mode as they decide the place to make investments, and are dramatically decreasing timeframes between planning and dwell campaigns.
Finally, the financial disruption brought on by the pandemic is creating urgency to develop revenues by way of performance-motivated media investments, that means advertisers navigating monetary restoration are compelled to concentrate on ROI. Expectations of TV promoting are altering; shifting away from conventional consciousness objectives in the direction of efficiency and conversion metrics that present measureable outcomes.
Fortunately, over-the-top (OTT) promoting is ideally positioned to complement linear TV campaigns and to reply advertisers’ want for premium video content material, flexibility and outcomes supply. In 2021, advertisers will more and more rely on OTT to make the most of their TV and digital video advert spend.
The rising OTT alternative
The pandemic acted as an accelerator for change on already shifting consumption habits. When the UK went into lockdown in March 2020, common consumption of audio visible content material elevated to virtually six and a half hours per day, an hour and a half greater than the common for 2019. The OTT video market benefitted enormously from this surge, with revenues rising over 18% to attain £1.7 billion. This improve was boosted by the launch of recent streaming platforms reminiscent of BritBox, Apple TV+ and Disney+. But current companies additionally noticed spectacular development, with All 4 views up 30% year-on-year, and hours spent on the ITV Hub rising 82%.
Continued enlargement is predicted all through 2021 and past, with the compound annual development charge (CAGR) for OTT predicted to be over 10% till 2024. This ongoing development of OTT supplies loads of new alternatives for advertisers to attain engaged and attentive viewers. Over three-quarters of shoppers are pleased to view adverts if it allows them to entry content material for free, and demand for high-quality ad-supported video is rising.
The rewards of OTT promoting
There are quite a few advantages to manufacturers in embracing OTT promoting. Although linear TV stays a extremely efficient channel for reaching impression and mass attain, supplementing linear buys with OTT permits manufacturers to reinforce their marketing campaign messages and in addition attain incremental audiences that aren’t essentially watching linear TV.
Brands can profit from OTT’s superior concentrating on capabilities, which allow them to ship a related expertise based mostly on the viewer’s location, pursuits and state of affairs, and improve promoting effectivity. The channel can also be extra measurable than conventional TV, particularly as it’s accessible throughout a number of linked gadgets reminiscent of linked TVs, tablets, desktop computer systems and smartphones, permitting manufacturers to monitor desired outcomes. And, with OTT stock accessible to purchase programmatically, advertisers can obtain quicker turnaround, permitting them to be extra versatile and agile with their advert methods.
OTT advert breaks are well-suited to fashionable shoppers’ need for short-form content material, with 90 second advert breaks versus up to three minutes per block on linear TV. These shorter breaks imply manufacturers profit from decreased advert litter and stronger shopper consideration. The efficiency of OTT promoting can also be distinctive, with viewers 53% extra probably to search for a model and 52% extra probably to purchase a product after seeing an OTT advert than after seeing a linear TV advert. OTT promoting amplifies the effectiveness not simply of linear TV promoting, but in addition associated messaging working throughout different digital channels.
The yr forward received’t simply be about restoration for the TV promoting business, it will likely be about adopting a contemporary method that mixes the effectivity, efficiency and adaptability of OTT with the high quality, engagement and scale of TV content material. The time is correct for advertisers to go ‘over the high’ and embrace OTT promoting as an integral a part of their 2021 promoting methods.
By Kevin van der StraatDirector Global Solutions & InnovationXaxis

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