Tag: ott

Amazon To Take On YouTube With Amazon Video Direct

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon is opening up its video streaming platform with the launch of Amazon Video Direct program, which aims to attract content creators to upload their videos to Amazon for better audience reach and monetization. The program offers creators several options to monetize their videos, including making them free and ad-supported, making them available to rent or own, and collecting royalties based on the hours streamed. Larger-scale video producers can also choose to package their content and offer it as an add-on subscription to Amazon Prime Video.

What Brands Need To Do
With this initiative, Amazon is making a strong play for more video content, especially user-generated and independent content, which puts it in direct competition with digital video platforms like YouTube and Vimeo. For brands, Amazon Video Direct opens a door for them to get their branded content onto Amazon’s video platform to reach the streaming audience. Since some videos will be ad-supported, brands can also work with content creators to find compatible videos to run ads with so as to reach their target audiences.

To read more on how brands can take advantage of the ongoing shift in content distribution toward streaming platforms, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: TechCrunch

Time Inc. To Launch Ad-Supported Streaming Service

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Publishing giant Time Inc. announced at its NewFronts event on Thursday that it will launch a free, ad-supported video streaming service. The content will mainly come from two of its subsidiaries People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly, which are slated to produce more than 100 hours of original programming and a library of more than 50 hours of content.

Why Brands Should Care
Since many SVOD services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are not ad-supported, the majority of those viewers are not reachable by traditional means of advertising, save for product placement. Therefore, brands should pay attention to the new ad-supported streaming services that have been popping up, and work with the content creators to reach the audience they are after.

To read more on how brands can deal with TV’s shift toward streaming platforms, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: AdWeek

Viacom Partners With Roku To Offer OTT Viewing Data

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Viacom will soon offer advertisers a peak into the coveted viewing data of over-the-top streaming services. In partnership with best-selling streaming device maker Roku, which Viacom invested in earlier this year, the media conglomerate will allow access to audience data from Roku, which will inform Viacom advertisers of what Roku users are streaming and help them target particular audience segments via Roku’s full-screen video ad network.

What Brands Need To Do
With viewers increasingly choosing on-demand viewing over linear TV, advertisers have been curious about the viewing data that SVOD services are collecting. But since many of those services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are not ad-supported, the data is rarely made available for brand advertisers. This partnership should enable Viacom advertisers to gain some valuable insight into the audience behavior on streaming services, and brands would be smart to explore this opportunity.

To read more on how brands can deal with TV’s shift toward streaming platforms, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Variety

Hulu Announces New Interactive Ads At NewFronts

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Hulu is expanding its interactive ads to target viewers watching in their living rooms, as the ad-supported streaming service announced a series of new ad deals at its NewFronts event on Wednesday morning. The company is working with BrightLine, an interactive advertising firm, to bring interactive ads to connected TV devices, including Roku set-top boxes or PlayStations, this summer. The new ads will enable living room viewers to click on an ad using their remote to learn more details about a particular brand, just like they would with the clickable ads that Hulu already serves on the desktop web.

Besides bringing interactive ads into the living room, Hulu is upping its ad measurement game by incorporating Nielsen’s digital ad ratings to its campaign reports. It is also teaming up with market research firm Millward Brown to offer brands more insights for their ads and will be working with our sibling agency Magna Global on that initiative as well.

What Brands Need To Do
With more and more viewers abandoning linear TV viewing in favor of on-demand viewing enabled by streaming services like Hulu, it is imperative that brands follow the eyeballs. According to Hulu, 70% of its content views now occurs on connected TV devices, whereas only 15% happens on the desktop. Therefore, it makes perfect sense for Hulu to extend its interactive ad unit to the living room. For brands, this extension, along with the improved measurement, should be helpful for reaching and engaging a big part of Hulu’s audience.

To read more on how brands can deal with the shift toward SVOD platforms, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: AdWeek

Fox And Disney To Sell Skinny Bundle Via Hulu (Update: NBC Too)

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Hulu is reportedly planning a new SVOD subscription for both live and on-demand access to content from broadcast and cable channels owned by Disney and 21st Century Fox, such as ABC, Fox, ESPN, and FX, for about $40 a month. The bundle is reportedly set to become available starting early next year.

Why Brands Should Care
With more and more viewers choosing the convenience of OTT streaming services over the rigid live programming grid and expensive cable TV bills, media owners are responding to consumer demand and slowly opening up to streaming platforms. Last year, for example, HBO launched standalone streaming service HBO Now to allow viewers to subscribe without a cable plan. While there is no doubt that TV networks will continue to sell their programming to cable companies as long as the money is good, this announcement nevertheless signals a new path for traditional media owners – it shows their willingness to experiment with the OTT subscription model and see if they can skip the middleman and sell directly to consumers, especially cord-cutters and cord-nevers.

For brands, this ongoing shift in content distribution means that they need to figure out new ways to get their messages across, as most subscription services do not carry traditional ads. For more information on how brands can reach viewers on streaming platforms with branded content and sponsorships, check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

Update 5/3: New reports say that NBC has also joined the discussion of taking part in the Hulu bundle.

 

Source: Re/Code

Sony’s Crackle To Develop Ad-Supported VR Content

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Sony’s free, ad-supported OTT content service Crackle is launching a VR initiative to gain an edge over the other streaming services. According to Sony, it is planning to launch a virtual theater experience and will offer sponsorship opportunities in VR to advertisers. Crackle’s first VR content will be a special from its animated comedy “SuperMansion.” The VR content will be available on PlayStation VR, Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard, and viewable as 360-degree videos on smartphones.

What Brands Need To Do
With more and more content creators starting to create VR and 360-degree content, brands are gaining opportunities to create immersive branded content to capture consumer attention and engage their audiences with. Although virtual reality may still be a few years away from mass adoption (as we predicted in the 2020 section in our Outlook 2016), brands would be smart to start working with content creators and platforms like Crackle to develop their own branded VR content today.

 

Source: Variety

How MAC Cosmetics Is Reaching Consumers With Branded Documentaries

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
MAC Cosmetics has been developing documentaries as part of its branded content initiative to reach customers on various social and streaming platforms. Previously, the Estée Lauder-owned company produced a feature-length documentary about three young people living with HIV and released it on both MAC’s own site and Netflix on World AIDS Day. Now, the makeup brand is working on a documentary with Caitlyn Jenner about the lives of transgender and non-conforming individuals, due out this June. MAC will also be circulating short clips of the documentaries across its social channels to encourage sharing and raise awareness.

What Brands Need To Do
MAC is hardly the only brand trying to reach today’s ad-shunning consumers with quality branded content. Companies such as JetBlue and Stella Artois have also funded documentaries and video series to lend an interesting narrative to their brands. With OTT streaming becoming increasingly popular, it makes sense for brands to reach their audiences with branded content that is discoverable on streaming platforms via universal search, instead of traditional video ads which many OTT platforms don’t support.

To learn more about how brands can reach viewers on OTT platforms with branded content, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: DIgiday

New Ad-Free OTT Video Service Fullscreen Welcomes Sponsored Content

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Fullscreen, a digital video network co-owned by AT&T and The Chernin Group, is set to officially launch its own subscription-based streaming service on April 26 as it tries to reduce its reliance on YouTube. Although the $4.99-per-month service won’t carry any ads, Fullscreen is very much open to hosting brand-sponsored content. AT&T, for example, is co-producing programs that will debut on the service at launch. Fullscreen has previously worked with brands to create branded or sponsored video content for distribution on various social channels like YouTube and Snapchat.

What Brands Need To Do
With 70% of U.S. internet users now watching TV via OTT streaming services, it is getting harder and harder for brands to reach their audiences with traditional TV ads. The fact that a lot of those subscription-based services are ad-free doesn’t mean that they are brand-free. On the contrary, they offer brands new opportunities to reach consumers with branded content, which can live alongside traditional media content and is equally discoverable on advanced TV interfaces. Therefore, brands should consider working with those brand-friendly OTT platforms to make their branded or sponsored content more accessible.  

To read more on how brands can reach viewers on OTT platforms, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Marketing Land

Header image courtesy of Fullscreen

Five Must-See Stats From Magna Global’s New Media Economy Report

Posted on by Lab Team

Click here to read the full report

Our sibling agency Magna Global released their latest Media Economy Report. Titled “The New Face of TV,” the report focuses on the rapid ascension of OTT and explores how this trend will make audiences redefine the definition of traditional TV. Here are the top five statistical highlights:

  • “Cord-cutting” became a reality in 2015, and Magna expects nearly seven million more homes will cut the cord by 2020.
  • The number of “cord-never” households — whether they are broadband-only, broadcast-only, or non-TV homes — will reach 30 million over the next few years.
  • Time spent with OTT devices has more than doubled year-over-year, and overall time with digital video, regardless of device, has increased by 25%.
  • OTT devices are capturing an increasing share of digital video ad views and growing faster than any other device with a 157% year-over-year growth rate.
  • Digital media revenues will reach 37.3% market share by the end of 2017 globally, surpassing TV, to become the number one media category.

 

Read original report on: magnaglobal.com

 

Nielsen To Report OTT Viewing By Streaming Device

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Nielsen already counts over-the-top viewing via streaming devices in its TV audience measurement. Starting April 25, the company will start breaking out those viewing stats by device to give media owners and brand marketers a better understanding of the attention distribution across various popular OTT streaming devices such as Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and even game consoles like Xbox and PlayStation.

What Brands Need To Do
This new device-specific viewing data will enable brand advertisers to figure out how much time people spend watching Nielsen-measured content on each device and link viewing of specific programs to these specific devices. This should provide brands with new insights on where they should prioritize their ad buying or which streaming device or game console they should  focus their resources for developing branded apps.

For more information on how brands can reach viewers on OTT platforms with ads or branded content, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Variety