How to maximize Video OTT Advertising Efficiency?

In our last article on video OTT advertising written in Dec 4, 2019- “ This is why you should prioritize video OTT advertising in 2020 ”, we discussed about

1. How video OTT consumption is not only restricted to the metro and tier 1 cities but is also in demand in smaller towns and rural areas.
2. What current scenarios like cheap data, bundled and affordable packages, increasing awareness, relevant content etc are leading to the rapid growth of OTT platforms.
3. Why this is the right time for digital advertisers to venture into video OTT advertising- uncluttered environment, higher engagement and advanced targeting levels.

In the last one year, the world we knew has changed completely which has derailed the growth plans of most media platforms except digital. If anything, events in the last year has only contributed to catalysing the adoption process of video OTT platforms. In the following sections we would witness how the popularity of OTT platforms has gained traction driven by tier 2,3 and 4 towns. However, with a number of OTT players in the market, there are new challenges faced by OTT advertisers. In this article, we will also talk about how to address these issues and ensure optimization of the advertising efforts on OTT platforms.

The rise of Video OTT platforms in India over the last year

According to a Google report published in mid-2020, India’s online video watching population was estimated to reach 500 million by 2020 end. As per PWC’s latest Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2020-2024 report, India is going to be the fastest growing nation in terms of OTT demand at a CAGR of 28.5% as compared to the global average of 13.4% and would become the sixth largest market by 2024.

If we see the volume of OTT consumption in 2020 (during and after lockdown), we can see that lockdown gave a significant push to OTT consumption in terms of total minutes. Also, another noteworthy fact about OTT growth in India is that growth in tier 2-4 towns was 1.5 times more than that in metro and tier 1 cities.

OTT Advertising: Opportunities and Challenges faced by advertisers

While subscription on video OTT has witnessed a steady growth over the last year, AVOD (Advertising Video on Demand) still remains the most preferred mode of OTT consumption. Majority of OTT users are ready to watch ads and share details in return of free entertainment.

With various OTT platforms reaching almost 50% of TV viewers, OTT advertising has gained popularity among brands and advertisers. Here are some insights from EY Marketer Survey 2020 & 2019:

Also, in terms of top priorities, majority of marketers have shared that marketing spend efficiency and finding a fine balance between TV and OTT advertising are going to be the top two priorities in the current time.

Following are some of the reasons various advertisers are considering OTT advertising in addition to traditional TV advertising:

1. Option to target: Unlike TV advertising which is apt for reaching out to masses, OTT advertising can work wonders to amplify the message among selected target groups.
2. Real time tweaking: TV advertising takes a long time to plan and needs a buffer period for implementation across channels. In case of OTT advertising, this turn-around time is significantly lower owing to insights and reach data being available in real time.
3. Better return metrics: Like every other digital advertising option, OTT advertising comes with an advantage of tracking every action taken on the ad from website visit to sale conversion.
4. Lower outlays: Advertising on TV requires a significant budget and mass scale of operations. For brands working in niche areas and having budget constraints, OTT advertising is a more cost-efficient advertising option.

We just discussed the advantages of OTT platforms advertising over TV advertising. However, with the rise of number of OTT platforms emerges the challenges TV advertisers usually face as well like:

1. Duplication of reach: The majority of people in India have access to multiple OTT platforms. In fact, as per a survey by Ovum, India has the highest levels of multi-subscription access.

For advertisers, this would mean that to reach out to their audience effectively, they should place ads across multiple OTT platforms. However, due to high level of overlap between the platforms, there would be two major operational challenges: duplication of reach and inefficiency of frequency caps.

2. Managing several campaigns across platforms: Also, when advertising across multiple platforms, there are operational challenges like duplication of efforts in getting rates, negotiation, and planning. With different platforms offering different levels of targeting, the challenge only gets bigger.

OTT Advertising with TMA: How can we solve this problem?

The Media Ant is one of the best advertising agencies in India for OTT advertising. A premier partner of most OTT platforms in India, The Media Ant offers the lowest OTT ad rates, important details on reach and targeting, planning assistance, a seamless execution and timely reporting thanks to our campaign scheduler.

Now, coming to OTT advertising, advertisers can select individual OTT platforms for advertising or can go for advertising on top 5 OTT apps through a single advertising platform through programmatic advertising. Here are some of the top features and advantages of OTT advertising on a single platform:

• Ad placement across top 5 OTT apps: MX Player, Voot, SonyLiv, JioTV, and Zee5.
• Targeting Options: Advertisers can choose up to 3 Levels of targeting for their campaigns. Some of the available options are as follows:
  • Geography- This type of targeting includes any given geographical area which can be anything from pan India to the top 8 metros, cities, and states.
  • Age and gender- In the section on gender, the targeting is done on the basis of males and females. The age targeting divides people on the basis of various age groups like 18-24, 25-34, 35- 44, 45-54, and 55+ 
  • Interest level- This type of targeting is more specific and dependent on a lot of details like education, income, parents, working professionals, online shoppers, SMEs, E-wallet users, content viewership.
  • Genre- Targeting according to various genres like comedy, sports, drama, thriller, mythology, reality, action, crime, family, romance, games, kids, documentary, food.
  • Carrier/ data usage- carrier includes networks like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, and Jio. Data usage includes services like 3G, 4G, WIFI, Medium data, and heavy data.

Advertising on top OTT apps through single platform would help the advertisers solve the following issues:

• Duplication of reach– Placing ads on a single advertising platform would enable advertisers to target a user across multiple video OTT platforms hence avoiding duplication of reach.
• Lack of control in frequency capping– Since the same user can be tracked across video OTT apps, this means frequency across multiple platforms can be monitored and controlled.   
• The difference in ad rates and targeting levels- No hassles coordinating on ad rates and targeting levels on different platforms.

In case you would like to know more about OTT advertising and OTT advertising rates, visit the following page:

For any other queries, write to us at Help@TheMediaAnt.com.

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