OTT Advertising

What is OTT Advertising?

OTT Advertising is an abbreviation for Over The Top Advertising. OTT Advertising refers to advertising in popular on-demand video and audio platforms. The terms Over the Top originated from the fact that these content providers bypassed the regular content distribution companies like cable companies and reached users directly with content. For an advertiser perspective, any on-demand video or audio platform where users can watch or hear content from a set of curated content is referred to as the OTT platform. OTT platforms make money either through subscription (e.g. Netflix) or through advertising on Hotstar. OTT Advertising refers to the process of placing ads in the platforms that accept paid advertising.

The landscape of OTT Advertising in India

Hotstar is credited with the advent and explosion of OTT Advertising in India. It was one of the first if not the first OTT platform to monetize its content through advertising. Other OTT platforms in India like SonyLiv, Zee5, and others soon followed suit. Live cricket telecasts of the world cup and IPL helped increase the popularity of OTTs and thereby advertising on these platforms. Users liked the additional channel of premium and popular content available on their mobile phones in addition to TV. All OTT platforms in India pushed mobile as the primary channel of consumption of their content and app downloads became the primary objective of these OTT platforms in India. With the increase in the adoption of these apps, OTT advertising in India gained popularity.

OTT Advertising Options

The popular advertising options in OTT platforms are video, audio, text, audio + video, and integrations. In addition to this, OTT platforms can also create custom advertising options. For e.g Product Integration during cricket matches or movies. However, the most popular advertising options on OTT platforms in India continue being video ads and audio ads. You can find the complete list of advertising options available in OTT platforms in the Media Options and Pricing tab. The info tab describes the media option.

1. In-Stream Ads

These are the classic video ads inserted before, during, or after streaming content. They can be skippable or non-skippable, depending on the platform and ad format.

Popular formats: Pre-roll (before content), mid-roll (during content breaks), and post-roll (after content)

2. Out-Stream Ads

These video ads appear outside of the actual streaming content, often on the platform's homepage, menus, or search results.

Popular formats: Overlays, banners, sponsored content, and native ads.

3. Interactive Ads

These ads go beyond passive viewing, allowing viewers to engage with the content through clickable elements, polls, quizzes, or even mini-games.

4. Addressable TV Advertising

This technology allows for targeted ad delivery based on specific viewer demographics, interests, and even real-time behaviors.

OTT Advertising Rate

Rates for OTT advertising are broadly 3 types. The first and the most popular is called CPM or Cost per Thousand pricing model. Here you play for every time your ad gets shown to the user. This pricing model is used for both performance and branding campaigns. The second pricing model is a Fixed price. This form of pricing for OTT platform advertising is applicable mainly to high impact medium like Leader Board. Per Day pricing for OTT advertising is used mainly for branding campaigns. Third and the smallest pricing model for OTT Advertising is CPC or Cost per Click. In this pricing model, the advertiser pays only is some clicks on the ad. This ad format is primarily used for performance campaigns.

Advantages of OTT Advertising

There are primarily two advantages of OTT advertising. The first advantage of advertising in OTT is the high reach that the platform provides. The reach of OTT platforms is not confined to urban India or metros. A high chunk of viewership for OTTs come from rural India. The availability of cheap data and affordable smartphones has driven the reach of OTT platforms to even the media dark areas of India. Another factor for the high reach is cricket on the OTT platforms. Second but the more significant advantage of OTT advertising is the personalization of ads. With a plethora of data available on the user from the phone and the ability to personalize ads at the phone level, it makes OTT advertising interesting. A few of the popular filters available for OTT targeting are Geography, Handset type, their behavior on the platform, carrier, etc.  

OTT Advertising Agency

The Media Ant is one of the pioneer agency in OTT Advertising world. As OTT advertising is still in its nascent stage, being an OTT advertising agency we work closely with both the OTT platforms and the advertisers to create custom solutions. Advertisers contact us as an OTT advertising agency to understand their needs, find out the right set of OTT platforms, and to buy the media space at the right price. In case you are looking for an agency that can help you to advertiser on any of the OTT platforms, The Media Ant is the right choice. You can contact us either through email, chatbot Anto, Whatsapp or call. The Media Ant is the only OTT advertising agency that provides you an assured flawless execution and best rate for your media buy. We will recommend the right filters that can be used to reach your target group more effectively.

Popular OTT Advertising Platforms in India

Top 5 Digital Advertising Platforms in OTT Category in India according to Similarweb Jan-March 2022