Marketing is a science. We're talking behavioral science – psychology, sociology, and behavioral economics. Effective marketing is rooted in analyzing human behavior – how they think and feel, what they believe, what motivates and influences them, and what drives them to make decisions and act on them.
Clever marketing doesn't just happen. It comes from knowing that the biggest key is understanding how people behave and why they behave the way they do. This sort of "marketing psychology" can give savvy marketers and business owners a competitive advantage by developing marketing strategies and tactics that purposefully and proactively influence their audience's buying decisions and behaviors.
To put that scientific marketing approach to work, you must also know where your potential customers want to see you, how they want to interact with you, and how they want to find you. We're here to help you understand that.
This blog, which discusses Over-the-Top advertising (OTT), is the first in a series highlighting three growing marketing trends significantly influencing and defining consumer behavior.
These blogs will address consumer behavior and discuss ways they prefer to interact with your brand. Future topics in this three-part series include the role chat bots play in marketing and how consumers are using voice search to find products and services.
While there are many places to spend your marketing dollars, not all of them make sense for your brand. Even if you have a good handle on how your potential customers behave and the 'why' behind those actions, it does you no good if your message isn't reaching them.
Your marketing strategy must include a mix of tactics across various media channels. It's also essential because consumers are bombarded with marketing messages everywhere, so the competition for their short attention span is fierce.
In short, you need to be where they are with a memorable and unique message to move them to action. And not just any action, but one that gives you the best chance of converting them into customers.
So, where are consumers seeing you?
One place for sure – through streaming services. Just like you during your free time, consumers are streaming content nearly every day.
If so many consumers are paying attention to streaming programming, should your brand consider making OTT advertising, known as streaming TV advertising, part of your digital marketing plan?
The short answer is: Yes, if you're looking for a targeted, cost-effective, and reliable way to engage consumers.
Here are a few stats to consider:
While traditional TV advertising and other channels are still relevant and have their purpose in your overall marketing plan, OTT trends have demonstrated that they will only be more prominent in the future. OTT involves displaying video ads or playing audio ads on streaming services.
This method can help businesses target audiences as more viewers lean into streaming video content instead of traditional cable and broadcast TV.
Effective streaming TV advertising campaigns use audience insights and algorithms, which are much more targeted than the traditional TV media buying approach. These campaigns stay true to their message and tone by appearing near relevant content: hit TV shows and movies, curated news, or live sports.
And with some streaming networks, user preferences go beyond simply what they are watching or listening to. Helping you target even more effectively.
Advertisers are increasing their spending on OTT advertising, making it essential to use this channel to remain competitive. But does this method of advertising work? Is it worth the cost? What are the advantages?
1. Connect through various content: Television networks limit the kind of content they show and offer smaller channels and niches for advertisers to use than streaming platforms. For instance, advertisers mostly target audiences through news, sitcoms, movies, sports, and children's programming. However, Connected TV (CTV) platforms offer a variety of content across many types of media and niches.
While many platforms offer users higher-paid subscriptions to avoid ads, many consumers opt for free versions. Even if audiences don't subscribe to a streaming service, they can still access much of the content they enjoy with intermittent OTT ads. This means advertisers can reach many target demographics who will likely see their ads.
2. Have more control over ad campaigns: Another benefit of OTT ads is gaining more control over the ad campaigns. For example, if an advertiser finds that an ad connects with another audience segment than they originally intended, they could almost instantly switch platforms to get faster results. This level of control means changes can be made on the fly without delay.
3. Access a highly engaged audience: When people are streaming, they're engaged. This means OTT ads get high visibility. That's partially the case because OTT ad breaks (average of about 2 minutes per 30-minute program) are typically much shorter than conventional TV commercial breaks (about 8 minutes per 30-minute show), so the audience is more likely to watch the ads. Each ad break usually consists of only two to three ads.
Also, OTT ads in niche content often align with the audience's interests, keeping them even more engaged throughout the ad break.
4. Improved targeting abilities: Brands need to connect with the right target audience at just the right time to be successful. Advertisers can hyper-target their campaigns using OTT ads based on their desired audience's age, gender, viewing habits, location, and other demographics. They can collect valuable data about their audience and viewing behaviors, which can help optimize your campaigns' performance.
5. Monitor campaigns in real-time. In-depth insights into data in real-time will make brands more agile and capable of tracking a campaign's success. With metrics such as impressions, click-through rates, and others, they'll see how well campaigns meet their business goals. They won't need to wait for campaigns to complete before identifying an issue and making a much-needed change. Advertisers can stay consistently alert and flexible.
OTT advertising is proving to be more than just a trend in today's entertainment world. It's a powerful marketing channel and sometimes less expensive than traditional advertising and TV because it can target the right customers through better segmentation.
And it leverages the knowledge gained by studying the behavior of potential customers and why they behave in a certain way. We know they're streaming content. And we know where they're streaming this content.
As part of your overall marketing plan, OTT advertising allows you to share your brand content with them in an engaging and meaningful way and move them to act.
How much is your time worth? A breakdown of ad-supported streaming options. Cordcutting.com. (2020, October 6). Retrieved January 6, 2023, from https://cordcutting.com/research/ad-supported-commercial-time/
Prweb. (2021, December 14). TvScientific report: Growth of connected TV viewership drives opportunity. MarTech Series. Retrieved January 6, 2023, from https://martechseries.com/tv-advertising/tvscientific-report-the-growth-of-connected-tv-viewership-drives-greater-opportunity-for-advertising-performance/