In an environment where people are surfing the web, watching television and perusing social media on three different devices at the same time, creating a marketing campaign that can effectively insert itself into this overstimulation is more important than ever.

Incorporating video advertising into your marketing strategy is essential in today’s world. Video has been one of the most prominent trends in marketing for more than a decade. According to Yahoo Finance, the digital video advertising market is projected to have a compound annual growth rate of 20.89%. This means that video advertising would grow to roughly $155B by 2026, up from $41B in 2019.

This increased investment into video advertising and increased value on video streaming was recently exemplified by CNN. On March 29, CNN’s direct-to-consumer streaming play, CNN Plus (CNN+) was launched. According to CNN, the goal of the service is to “establish closer relationships with news consumers” – similar to the way in which HBO and Netflix conduct business. In CNN’s case, the broadcast giant will have more content available to consumers than their competitors, a strong team to cover breaking news and new, original shows for subscribers.

For businesses and marketers, CNN’s new service should be a sign to begin considering a new way in which to reach a target audience. As more and more consumers are cutting the cord (switching from from a paid TV subscription, like cable, to an Internet-based streaming service like Netflix or Hulu), investing in OTT advertising is a way in which to continue reaching consumers through targeted video ads. OTT is a type of advertising that delivers a specific ad to a viewer watching TV content through an Internet-connected device. Think of platforms like Hulu and Amazon Prime. As the Internet-streaming industry continues to grow and the paid TV subscription industry shrinks, organizations must begin to consider advertising on a medium that is still relatively new, but has a great deal to offer.

Below, we’ve highlighted a handful of OTT advertising benefits and how your organization can stay connected to cord cutters.

Benefits of OTT

The benefits of OTT advertising are plentiful. We don’t know about you, but when we are binge-watching our new favorite show on say Hulu, we are super invested in what we’re watching. Now, imagine your company’s ad appearing in front of a viewer who can’t bring themselves to leave their device without the fear of missing something major.

In addition to delivering ads to an engaged audience, OTT ads are delivered to the right audience. While traditional television ads lack a great deal of targeting, OTT ads offer more granular targeting options to ensure that your company’s ads are viewed by an audience that is relevant to your product or service.

Still unsure if this is the right advertising channel for you? Here’s another benefit for you. Unlike YouTube TrueView ads, OTT ads are not skippable. That’s right, your targeted, engaged audience will have to watch your entire ad if they want to continue watching their movie or show. And believe us, they’re going to keep watching. According to Strategus, the completion rate for an OTT ad is typically between 90% and 100%. Not only are the ads typically watched all the way through, they are viewed 100% in-view, meaning when the ad plays, it takes up 100% of a viewer’s screen.

According to Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing Survey, 87% of video marketers reported that video gives them a positive ROI. While ROI is arguably one of the most important metrics in any marketing campaign, it can also be somewhat difficult to quantify in a video marketing campaign. However, there are numerous points of measurement to gain insight into whether a video ad is working to generate revenue for your organization.

For starters, video marketing can help to generate leads, in turn positively impacting sales. We recommend incorporating TV-to-mobile elements, such as QR or text codes to effectively track leads from the video ad. Video ads also provide branding assistance for your company or product. According to Wyzowl’s survey, 94% of marketers agreed that videos have helped increase user understanding of their product or service. The below graph highlights what success can look like when your company invests in video advertisements.

What Comes Next

Video advertising is growing more quickly than any other marketing channel. Admittedly, getting started with video marketing can be a bit overwhelming. We recommend starting by crafting some ideas that best represent your brand and working to create a video from there. It pays to focus on providing value to your ideal consumer. Rather than listing off facts about your product, service or company, dig deep and discover what your ideal consumer is truly looking for.

Also, if this is your first time using OTT ads to market your business, we highly recommend contacting a marketing agency to not only help create the ad, but also determine the best programmatic route to take in order to effectively reach your ideal consumer. Agencies can also be a fantastic go-between if you would prefer to work with a streaming service like Amazon Prime, Hulu or YouTube.

The Times Union Media Group is more than happy to help refine your video advertising strategy. In addition, our partners at StoryStudio can help make your video vision a reality. Their full-service brand studio and content marketing experts can handle every aspect of your campaign from start to finish.

If you’re serious about lead gen and brand awareness, the time to invest in video advertising has come. Get in touch with us today to learn more about how OTT advertising can help reach new audiences.

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