Over-the-top (OTT) platforms are becoming a bigger part of the media space. They are crucial in conserving bandwidth and enabling the changes in traditional media by distributing content directly to viewers. There has been a noticeable growth of OTT platforms in recent times.
The main proof is the fact that, since 2010, the pay TV penetration rate has fallen from 88% to 64% in the US, a country with the biggest percentage of pay TV subscribers in the world. This testifies to a massive cord-cutting trend in the US, something that is likely to continue in the following years.
But what is behind it? How did the OTT platforms break into such a rigid media market, where change previously happened extremely slowly? We may have found the answer: advertising. The OTT advertising market is projected to reach almost 190 billion dollars in 2024, pumping more money into the industry and enabling the massive growth that is finally happening.
This blog will look at the advertising strategies for OTT platforms that have influenced the changes in consumers, as well as the entire media landscape in general.
Table of Contents
- What is OTT?
- How OTT Platforms Monetize Content
- OTT Advertising
- Top 10 OTT Strategies to Reach Your Target Audience
- The Best OTT Marketing Strategies
- Conclusion
What is OTT?
Let’s start with the basics. Over-the-top (OTT) platforms refer to streaming platforms that transmit content directly to interested consumers using Unicast and Multicast, bypassing traditional broadcasting methods, such as cable, satellite TV, or radio. Most often, OTT solution providers transfer data such as movies, series, and documentaries, and the transfer takes place through Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).
CDNs are a network of geographically distributed servers that deliver content to consumers based on their location. In this way, the flow of information is balanced, and the content is being transferred quickly and efficiently. This reduces the delay and the use of bandwidth.
If we go deeper into over-the-top technology, OTT platforms use protocols such as HLS and MPEG-DASH. They help adjust the quality of the recording based on the quality of the Internet connection and the performance of the consumer’s computer.
OTT Platforms
Most of you already know them, but here are some of the most popular OTT platform solution providers in the industry:
- Dacast
- Vimeo OTT
- Kaltura
- Vidyard
- Sprout Video
- Uscreen
- Brightcove
- IBM Cloud Video
- JW Player
- Castr
All of these platforms have been experiencing tremendous growth lately. Here are some of the reasons why this is the case:
- Accessibility. Content is available to viewers anywhere and anytime, and the only requirement is an internet connection. It is evident that a huge part of all streaming takes place through applications on mobile phones, tablets, or TV, rather than on search engines. This just goes to show that many of the consumers of this content do so while on the go. It is a massive advantage in favor of the OTT platforms compared to traditional media, as traditional broadcasting is more stationary and less available on the go. Also, the availability of OTT content greatly changes consumer behavior.
- Content Variety. It is another key advantage of OTT platforms. The OTT content strategy involves investing a large part of their funds in creating original content. They also offer a variety of movies, series, live events, and many other types of content from other creators. This allows for a diverse audience that they gain with niche content that cannot be seen on traditional media such as broadcast television.
- Flexibility. Flexibility in payment, i.e., lack of contracts and obligations, is another advantage of OTT platforms. Most of them charge on a monthly basis, which has led to a huge part of the audience “cutting the cords” with traditional satellite or cable TV. This way, the audience can choose which OTT platform to join each month and whether to stay with the same one over an extended period of time.
- User Control. OTT platform users have the opportunity to decide for themselves what and when to watch, compared to a pre-set schedule of traditional television. This allows for an extremely personalized experience and user control over content. Also, these platforms contain tools for rewinding and pausing content, something that has been incorporated by broadcasting companies more recently.
- Cost-effectiveness. Traditional television covers a wide range of content that is not of interest to every individual. On the other hand, OTT platforms are more efficient in this regard, targeting their audiences precisely and serving them content that they are interested in. This leads to OTT platforms being more cost-effective compared to Cable or Satellite TV.
How OTT Platforms Monetize Content
In most cases, OTT platforms charge for their services monthly. This is their advantage over cable and satellite TV because subscribers are not tied long-term. There are different OTT monetization models, and the most common ones are:
- Pay Per View (PPV): This subscription model, also known as TVOD, is one that OTT platforms use to allow viewers to see a specific live event that is not widely available. This is most common for boxing, other live sports events, and concerts. Viewers pay a one-time fixed price, and their subscription ends after the event.
- Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD): This subscription model requires a full subscription for some time. Usually, the platforms charge monthly or annually, and the longer the subscription is, the lower the price. When they pay the subscription, users can watch the whole content library of the platform as much as they want without additional charges. SVOD platforms usually allow multiple viewing options and downloads for offline viewing. Also, they often combine this subscription model with the advertising model, where they lower the price of subscriptions if the users allow ads.
- Ad-supported Video on Demand (AVOD): The ad-supported subscription model usually grants users access to content without a subscription or lowers the price if the users allow ads. With this model, advertisers can target specific groups of people for their advertising, improving their conversion rate and effectiveness while users get low-cost content.
OTT Advertising
Over-the-top advertising is delivered directly to the viewers through internet streaming services and devices, bypassing traditional broadcasting methods. This type of advertising helps businesses target precise audiences and gives them advanced analytics on ad performances. The ads are more engaging, and most OTT platforms allow brands to target their ads according to interests, behaviors, demographics, and location.
That is why many brands choose this method and avoid losing their ad in the crowd of TV commercials. Usually, OTT advertising is cheaper, better optimized, and allows brands to reach the ever-growing number of cord-cutters who moved to the OTT networks.
Top 10 OTT Strategies to Reach Your Target Audience
OTT advertising allows brands to deliver content directly to a targeted audience, meaning that the traditional one-size-fits-all approach is not the best idea. That is why well-thought, highly customized marketing strategies are crucial to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.
This thinking increases the conversion rate and maximizes the return on investment (ROI). Here are a few steps on how to create a successful OTT marketing strategy.
1. Campaign Planning
The campaign planning starts with defining the objectives and the video purpose. Some of the most common marketing objectives are:
- Brand awareness
- Lead generation
- Customer engagement
- Conversions
- Sales boost
On the other hand, some of the possible video purposes are:
- Customer awareness
- Consideration
- Decision
2. Audience Targeting
Targeting your audience is one of the most important things in creating a successful marketing strategy. Knowing who you are creating the content for and understanding their pain points are fundamental.
One of the main points is identifying the audience’s demographics, such as average age, gender, and location. Another is psychographics, which refers to the target group’s behaviors, interests, and values. The third is viewing habits, the way that your audience consumes the content. The content should be created towards these characteristics and should be relevant.
3. Analyze the Competitors
Getting to know what your competitors are doing and where you stand against them is another key point in creating a successful OTT strategy. You gain that knowledge by analyzing their marketing approach and content. Always look for empty spaces your brand could fill and differentiate to separate from them as much as possible.
4. Set Your Goals
Identify the goals you want to achieve with your marketing campaign. We should ask ourselves questions like:
- What do we hope to accomplish?
- What type of information does our target group want?
- What sort of conversions are we looking for?
The goals should be specific, clear, measurable, and achievable. They should also be timе-bound and feasible at that time.
5. Select the OTT Platform
First, you do a deep study of OTT platforms to discover where your target group is most present, what the platform requirements are, etc. Choosing a niche platform that will be highly specialized to the type of content your target group prefers is crucial. That way, the concentration of your target group will be higher, enabling a higher level of conversions.
Study aspects such as advertising opportunities and the required format of advertisements. All this knowledge will help you optimize your content for the platform you are going to use, helping your ads achieve better results.
6. Plan the Content
Content planning encompasses a whole selection of things and is just as, if not more, important than content creation itself. Here are some of the most common items from this process:
- Storytelling. Storytelling techniques create an emotional connection between the brand and the audience. The content should align with the brand values to achieve this connection. The story should create a narrative to show off the customer’s problems, a presentation of your products, and a guide to the resolution of the audience’s problems by using your products and services. Storytelling content aims to trigger the viewers’ emotions, so the script should be written with that intention. Those are the basics of great storytelling and should continue to the tiniest details in your content, shaping your entire marketing campaign.
- Outline the audience’s pain points. If you have conducted proper market research, you should learn the topics your target audience is interested in and their pain points. By using this information and outlining them, you will catch the potential client’s attention. You can create content about multiple topics, such as tutorials for your products, information about your products, testimonials from content clients, and outlining your team’s expertise. You do all this with one thing in mind: what question is my ideal client asking?
- Design and creativity. The creative and aesthetic part of the video is just as important as the idea behind the video itself. The angle should be attention-capturing, and the message presentation should be unique.
- Type and distribution. There are different ways of distributing your video content, such as live streaming and VOD.
7. SEO Optimization
SEO optimization is the last but also one of the most important parts of content planning. It is the way to make your content more visible. Being able to optimize your content leads to higher rankings, bigger reach, and higher engagement.
Here are some steps that lead to better SEO optimization:
- Find the platform that suits you the most
- High-quality content creation
- Relevant keywords
- Engaging thumbnails
- Optimized metadata
- Social media cross-platform promotion
8. Create Content
Now that you have planned everything, the next step is content creation. Getting a professional content creator is the best idea, no matter what type of content you need. That way, you will be able to concentrate on other things, and the professionals will ensure that you receive quality work. Make sure the advertising videos are in high definition, as low-quality videos are not likely to catch the audience’s attention. The ad should also have a clear call to action (CTA).
9. Monitor and Adjust
Measuring success using advanced analytics is key. It makes it possible to see if your marketing strategy is successful, if the objectives are met, and if there is room for improvement. That way, you can react in time and adjust the strategy if the results are not favorable. How you measure success depends on your goals. Analytics on most OTT platforms allow detailed tracking of the parameters such as views, clicks, conversions, and reach.
10. Video Streaming AI (Artificial Intelligence)
Artificial intelligence is slowly but surely taking over some of the most important tasks and jobs. The AI algorithms are designed to adapt continuously, making the user experience more engaging. Video streaming is no exception, and this is becoming a viable OTT strategy. In this section, we will explain how AI technology works in video streaming and what aspects of it can be completed by artificial intelligence.
AI Technology in Content Creation
The AI technology is an incredibly useful tool when it comes to multiple steps of content creation:
- Script Generation. AI-generated scripts are becoming a common thing in the OTT industry. With natural language processing, AI can learn the elements needed in different video formats and genres and generate a script compatible with the vision.
- Editing. AI uses various mechanisms to optimize post-production video editing, reducing the need for manual work. Some of the edit suggestions include effects, filters, and music.
- Transcription. AI uses LLM (Large Language Models) to transcribe and dub audio automatically.
AI Technology in Content Redaction
Some of the main AI-powered processes within the content redaction include:
- Content tagging: Using AI-powered tools specialized in video analysis, creators can tag certain video frames with relevant information and metadata.
- Ad placing: AI algorithms can determine not only ad targeting, making sure that the advertisements reach the relevant audience, but also, using AI tools, you can determine the appropriate timing of the ads, enhancing their performance and effectiveness.
- Video captioning: AI Tools, such as Amazon Transcribe, can be successfully utilized for captioning and timestamping. They use speech recognition and natural language processing to identify and transcribe spoken words.
- Metadata improvement: Leveraging content to the optimal metadata is key for enhanced rankings. AI constantly analyzes audience behavior, trends, and feedback, leading to content curation and enhancing engagement and discovery.
- Automated highlight extraction: You can identify and extract key moments using AI tools. This is increasingly used in the podcast industry, highlighting and extracting short clips from long video formats.
AI Technology Helping User Experience
Another aspect of the quality enhancement made by AI technology includes better user experience. Here are some of the ways that AI impacts user experience in the OTT media:
- Video quality optimization: The AI machine learning algorithms continuously monitor users’ internet connection and device capabilities. This leads to dynamic video quality adjusting, reducing the latency, buffering, and minimizing interruptions.
- Targeted advertising: AI enhances advertising performances and user experience by continuously analyzing ad data and targeting users precisely.
- Personalized recommendations: Based on previous user selections, AI can personalize recommendations, thus improving user engagement patterns.
The Best OTT Marketing Strategies
Now that we have broken down the entire process of creating a successful OTT marketing strategy, it is time to familiarize yourself with some of the most common OTT advertising strategies. Here are some of them:
- Linear and OTT Strategy. This strategy is an interesting combination of two completely different media. Linear broadcasting allows greater reach but imperceptibly small targeting of the audience. On the other hand, OTT marketing enables precise targeting of a smaller number of potential clients. In this way, they complement each other, contributing to the advertised brand’s greater success.
- Bite-sized video marketing strategy. Video ads that work best with OTT platforms are bite-sized, catchy, stand-out videos that last 15 to 30 seconds. They are the perfect length to keep viewers’ attention until the end, which rarely happens with ads longer than 30 seconds.
- Multi-platform advertising strategy. Advertising across multiple platforms and devices is one of the best ways to increase reach. Promoting OTT ads on social media is one example. This leads to increased traffic and audience engagement in real time. Consistent ads across multiple devices, such as tablets, TVs, and mobile phones, are also a great way to give viewers a seamless experience and enhance ad performance.
- Interactive advertising. Developing ads that enable viewer interaction can be exceptionally successful. Some examples are polls, quizzes, and other clickable elements that lead to additional content.
Conclusion
With the development of the OTT industry, more and more brands are deciding to skip traditional advertising methods and create their own OTT strategy. It’s no longer easy to stand out against the competition, which is getting bigger every day, so every brand has to have something special up its sleeve to keep the audience’s attention.
Targeting your audience, finding their pain points, and solving them are the foundations of a good OTT marketing strategy. SEO optimization and quality content will lead to better performance, and good storytelling will develop an emotional connection between your audience and your brand.
Developing an OTT strategy is not simple—many factors affect the success and performance of the advertising itself. However, if enough attention is paid to the most important points that we have explained in detail in this blog, success is almost guaranteed.
Selecting the right OTT streaming provider for your broadcasting needs takes careful consideration. We hope this comparison has provided you with valuable insights into the leading OTT options available.
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