Why Brands Should Opt For OTT Advertising?

Over the last decade, the way we consume content has significantly changed. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that OTT (Over the top) platforms have become a staple for entertainment, especially for the millennial generation. A report by KPMG India & EROS now titled ‘The Future: Now Streaming’ indicates that 80% of those who subscribe to OTT platforms have said that their entertainment needs are met by OTT platforms and 38% of these users are ready to give up on traditional content viewing mediums such as TV.

A report by PWC indicates that India’s OTT video market will grow at a 21.8% CAGR from INR 4464 Cr in 2018 to INR 11976 Cr in 2023. OTT is slowly becoming the preferred platform for entertainment in India.

As an increasing number of viewers shift from traditional to digital platforms, brands have to start and many have already tapped into OTT platforms as a key advertising channel. Over-the-top (OTT) platforms and solutions have gained utmost popularity and will receive a significant advertising budget hike in 2020-21. OTT brings in digital marketing and the brute force of television advertising with the targeting of programmatic as well.

Urban India watches content on OTT platforms and spends 30 to 40 mins extra, than usual. The credibility of the medium has increased and the user base has jumped 10X on all the OTT platforms

India, being the second largest mobile data consumer in the world has led to a surge in OTT platform subscriptions. An overall 75% increase has been seen in OTT app subscriptions during the lockdown. Over the last couple of months, a lot of traditional media viewers have shifted to these platforms due to availability of better content.

From TV series and movies to documentaries, there’s easy access to a variety of content. Households are slowly converting to online video streaming platforms like OTT followed by DTH connections. Hence, customer retention is easier on OTT platforms when compared to other mediums.

TV and movie consumption is evolving and users are cutting the cord and consuming their desired content via OTT devices, marketers can utilize ‘Advanced TV advertising’ to reach their target audience & increase the ROI. With the growing popularity of OTT platforms, it’s obvious that marketers and advertisers will look at this category as a key channel for reaching out to their audience.

Factors such as audience targeting, measurement metrics, premium viewership, cost-effectiveness, custom geographical targeting and internet-based targeting are some of the reasons why OTT platforms are becoming a go-to channel for advertisers and brands. OTT platforms are also adopted by large companies and start-ups for innovative and data-driven campaigns. With Covid-19 and importance of staying at home pitched in, this is the right time for marketers to invest in this powerful channel.

Here are a few reasons why brands must set aside their budgets for OTT advertising

Precise Targeting

On OTT platforms, each user is assigned with a unique user ID for the respective device. This ID can be safely given to advertisers for them to leverage the audience data to precisely target and push out relevant ads on their OTT applications. For instance, if your startup is a sports apparel company that is targeting millennials, OTT platforms allow you to specifically target users who have shown an interest in sports and fitness-related content. This type of targeting allows you to customize your content as per your audience. Targeting can be based on the device in use, region, type of content, ad preferences, gender, age, browsing patterns, recommendations etc.

Viewability Measurement Metrics

Though there is a common perception that viewability measurement does not work for OTT, there is still a way for brands to get insights into the viewability of the ads. OTT platforms do not allow third-party scripts to run on their content due to the risk of interrupting a user’s viewing experience, in case a script fails to run as designed. An advertiser/agency can get past this by making a deal with publishers to push their ads safely without agitating the content viewing experience. The programmatic demand-side buying platforms (DSPs) can provide reporting insights into ad completion rates on OTT.

Undivided Viewer Attention

A report by Freewheel indicates that over one-third of OTT visits are over an hour long and viewers complete 98% of all premium video ads. With OTT advertising, brands have an option to offer relevant content as per the interests of their target audience. In OTT advertising, brands can go deeper into understanding the consumer’s persona and offer content that will result in better engagement with the viewer.

Better ROI

In traditional TV advertising, the large audience size makes it difficult to make your ad relevant for each viewer. In an OTT platform, you can define your target audience and create ads that are relevant and engaging. Better engagement will lead to higher ROI than compared to traditional forms of advertising.

The Number Of Ads

On OTT platforms since publishers and agencies have access to the user ID, they can do better ad targeting. If the advertisers choose to play good and not push the same ads to the same user multiple times, they can keep a roster of ads and roll them out in rotation ‘to that respective user’ on their OTT app. Anyone who has used OTT apps would have this experience of the same ad popping up throughout the duration of a show. This method of using different ads makes the ‘ads’ less annoying, feel less repetitive and also increases brand credibility and purchase intent.

There are plenty more untapped opportunities in OTT for advertisers to reach their audiences by using programmatic advertising. For instance, a  popular web hosting service that pushed out ads on OTT on popular movies, saw a growth of 18% using OTT alone. Therefore,  OTT is successful in being the “top of the funnel” advertising strategy by reaching unique users who use OTT and watch content consistently.

As a part of their strategy, brands should plan on setting aside OTT budgets. A brand can start with a recommended minimum limit to target their audience. Once the campaign achieves success, they should focus on building more layers with more precise targeting, using already achieved metrics.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.