OTT Advertising Growth & Trends

Online is the place to be. Did you know 71 percent of Internet users log in to an over-the-top (OTT) service? Yep. And, that’s where your ads should appear. Why? The Video Advertising Bureau’s Q1 2018 Report says “advertising comprises 45% of all online video revenue and is projected to grow to almost 60% over the next 10 years.”

So, when our team is asked to share one growing trend in the digital video advertising industry for the year ahead it’s —  hands-down — the implementation of advertising across OTT devices and OTT players, with a shift in ad spend budgets from traditional broadcasting mediums like television and radio, to Internet.

Today we’re sharing forwarding-thinking insight from Joel Cox, a founding partner and the SVP of Strategy and Innovation at Strategus. He spends his days developing, implementing, and managing digital strategies for his clients and partners, so he knows a thing or two about where OTT is headed.

A Look at Advertising Today

In terms of digital video advertising, OTT is continually morphing and growing. It’s like the Wild West of data-driven advertising. The OTT industry is moving so rapidly that if you were to take a seven day vacation, the landscape would have changed while you were gone. And, unlike traditional television advertising, which has the Federal Communications Commission as its governing body, we instead focus on self-regulation and guidelines created by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) in addition to key learnings and strategy improvements we implement based on real-world OTT campaign experience.

Customers have yet to develop a loyalty to any one OTT service provider, like NBC, Comcast or Universal, and instead go where the content is that they want to consume. Now ads can appear  programmatically, based on their geography, online and offline behaviors, psychographics and other personal details, ensuring the ads they see are relevant.

Understanding OTT Innovation & Trends

So, how is OTT changing the ad landscape? Why do we even care? Because leaps in technology allow us to target audiences when and where they’re viewing online content and we’ve harnessed the power of programmatic ad placement across OTT service and devices.

Here’s why we’re in love with this ad strategy and service:

• Sequential messaging: We all know storytelling is hot in the advertising and marketing world. OTT combined with sophisticated video event player retargeting allows us to follow users around their ad-supported OTT / CTV streaming sources, sharing ongoing messaging that builds on itself, reeling in users via empathic stories, helpful how-tos or even nudges to complete that online transaction.
• Attribution tracking:  Knowing that an ad works is critical. We can now see how many households viewed a programmatic OTT ad and if they took action to view the advertiser’s website, social media or another online platform. in addition, we have the know-how to report and optimize toward the instance where any users(s) exposed to our OTT ads has visited a client’s physical location.
• Hyperlocal advertising capabilities: We can target your audience by location, down to an address. Want to get more locals to your store? Let’s stream a compelling video ad just before the lunch hour to people within walking distance of your front door.
• Interactive capabilities: For us, it’s all about the user experience. Ads should be fun, engaging, relevant, and immersive. We even use interactive-ad technology to connect with viewers. Imagine letting people vote in a poll or retweet your brand’s message with a simple tap on the screen during your ad.
• Ability to build lookalike audiences: Want more customers? Of course you do, so we use numerous data points to build a lookalike audience of people who have previously engaged with your brand, or who are likely to, based on their Internet usage and interests.

It’s an exciting time to be at the helm of this powerful targeted ad placement option. Our crystal ball, and mountains of OTT Campaign data, gives us the right insight and foreshadowing into where OTT is headed.

Our OTT Advertising Predictions

We’re confident all advertising will be transacted programmatically in the next five years. We think Amazon, Google, Apple and Netflix will rise to the top of this industry as more players enter the streaming content space. We think Netflix will adopt Hulu’s style of ad placement eventually and when it comes to content, sports events will eventually migrate from traditional network television and cable channels to OTT streaming services. In fact, we’ve already seen hints of this with Twitter live-streaming Thursday Night NFL Football games and YouTube streaming the World Series.

Users want personalization. We’ll see audiences shift toward small, niche platforms to engage with what’s specifically relevant to them. The catch-all approach to traditional television or even cable channels won’t fuel the on-demand need for targeted content.

Of course, advertisers will follow their fans and content creators will have an influx of work to create personalized ads.

Is your brand ready to learn what OTT is all about? The team at Strategus would be happy to discuss how programmatic advertising across OTT devices and OTT players can reach your specific audience. Need help identifying who they are? We do that too. Let’s chat.