Cord cutting has grown substantially since 2015. Currently, only 56% of Americans report watching TV through cable or satellite, down from 76% in 2015. However, 78% of consumers living in the United States have access to a subscription video service. Despite this major shift, OTT spending, meaning spending spent on streaming service advertisements, makes up only 3% of digital advertising spending because the space is dominated by subscription services with no or light ad loads. This increase in spending, despite still being a fraction of overall spending, reflects a growing shift towards ad-supported streaming.
We spoke briefly with Gary Mittman of Kerv Interactive about what is going on in the OTT space.
What’s the coolest thing about OTT advertising?
IN the OTT / CTV space it is offering the opportunity to think outside the box of traditional interstitial/interruptive TV ads. We are in an environment where the content owners can create formats and concepts that can provide the viewer a user curated experience and give the advertiser an optin user with true intent.
How did the Pandemic Affect OTT Advertising?
With the advent of people being stuck at home and the expanding of the streaming channels we have begun to see subscription fatigue. Consumers are getting entertainment and content from multiple sources. This includes Social, OTT, CTV, Broadcast, Internet Streamers etc. This has caused networks like Netflix to see a decline in subscribers. As we have seen in the press they are now talking about AVOD or ad driven free content. We are at a convergence point of consumers trained to enjoy ad free content and the networks needing to supplement with alternative and creative methods while keeping the viewers interested.
What type of first party data is being used to track?
In the CTV space it is a data driven process, in the OTT space the networks have the user viewing preference data. The question is can the registration data be used for other applications and maintain privacy boundaries.
What is a great way to target locally?
With CTV it is a standard process, but with the OTT networks they have detail on where the user is and can target the ad opportunities with the residence details. IF the user is on a digital device away from that location you have the IP address for now that can assist but there is question if that is going away in the future.
What is KERV offering that is different?
KERV provides a real-time visual analysis with sophisticated AI to understand, like the natural eye, what the viewer is seeing, this is converted into visual metadata and or contextual relevance. WIth these data points KERV can provide a few paths of advertising applications; 1. Contextual data for programmatic relevant ad buys, 2. Creating object specific interactive experiences across all platforms and devices with our Automated ad creation platform. We are thinking out of the box to generate new and interactive experiences for both content and advertising alike.
