The world was moving away from traditional cable television to the choices and affordability of streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. Suddenly, the planet was turned upside down with the impact of COVID 19, and the movement sped up exponentially. The public needed entertainment in their homes more than ever. Keep reading to find out what you need to know about the OTT services that Go Florida SEO provides
Over the top services suddenly became huge and marketers scrambled to capitalize on the OTT boom. One area often overlooked is the lucrative area of mobile marketing for OTT services. Below, we discuss OTT services and what mobile OTT can do for you.
What Is OTT?
Over the top (OTT) media is a big business. It involves the practice of streaming content and media over the internet directly to a television or laptop. The chances are that you probably already use it, with services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Disney+.
OTT has changed the landscape of television. It has interactivity with consumer data and targeting opportunities not available in the traditional television format. In addition, the width and depth of content available to consumers are vast in genre and application, from movies to short television shows.
Most of these services gain money from subscription services. As they circumvent the use of telecommunications and cable providers, they are often extremely reasonably priced. They are also just beginning to open up to the possibilities of marketing and advertising revenues in addition to their subscription incomes.
What Do OTT Services Offer the Consumer?
The first reason that OTT is becoming huge is its ability for use on multiple devices. With one account, you can watch television on a games console, smart television, mobile phone, or tablet. As long as you have an internet connection, you can watch OTT services wherever you go.
The second reason is the quality and amount of content that streaming services provide. With big names companies like Disney now producing original content for their services, the market has become extremely competitive. Services such as Netflix now even have their own production companies.
Thirdly, the low cost of OTT services over traditional cable providers is turning people to OTT subscriptions. A basic Netflix package can be under 10 dollars a month with content that updates weekly, whereas cable providers’ basic packages can be more than double this.
How Can They Watch?
The beauty of OTT for the consumer, and from anyone considering using it for marketing, it the sheer range of products OTT services can be watched on.
The most important of these is the smart television. It is a window into the home and the main choice of device for those watching television. However, for people at work, it can also be displayed on a laptop screen.
Thirdly, OTT services can stream to a mobile phone. This means they have permanent access to high-quality content. As a marketer, you have a direct line to a device that is with them all day.
Fourth is the games console. The use of a console for streaming is becoming more popular as people turn to an all-in solution for all their entertainment needs.
What Content is Available?
Video is just one of the many different kinds of content available. Though the most commonly used, video streaming is an excellent marketing tool as it offers so many channels for target markets. From children’s shows to long, complex adult thrillers, you can aim marketing materials at a wide range of customers using just one service.
You can also use OTT solutions for audio-based media. Spotify and audible are both great examples of audio-based OTT services. Many radio stations and podcasts also stream directly to consumers.
Even instant messaging services now count as OTT. Facebook messengers, Whatsapp, and other brands, some of which incorporate voice calling, also negate the need for traditional wired telecommunications channels.
Marketing Benefits of OTT Services
Advertising and marketing on OTT platforms have a number of benefits, the largest being its range of targeting options. Demographics, themes, and content can be used to target specific audiences. For example, if you were trying to sell a kitchen product, you could aim it specifically at people who watch cookery shows.
By narrowing this down even further by age, gender, like,s and dislikes, you can get a very targeted picture. This saves you time and money over traditional mediums, which are a blanket approach. You will no longer be marketing at an audience that does not care, in the hope one or two people see the product and like it.
With this comes strong analytics. You can view customer feedback and impressions in real-time, meaning you can adapt and alter your marketing plan as you go. This increases efficiency and saves money.
Lastly, OTT advertising has extremely flexible pricing. You can see results with very little expenditure due to its effectiveness. You can then scale up your costs and budget once you have an effective strategy in place.
Precision Targeting
The strongest part of using OTT streaming services to market your product is precision targeting. It allows you to focus on a particular demographic with extreme accuracy.
Firstly, you can use address level targeting. This might mean you are looking to market a product at households in a particular country, state, or even town. Using GPS tracking, OTT advertising services make sure that your content is only being displayed to people within your specified geographical locale.
The second form of precision targeting is by demographic. As people provide their details to the company upon sign up, you can target based on any number of factors, These can include age, income, education, size of the family, location, and background.
The third type of targeting is behavioral. This targets users’ preferences, such as the type of content they watch. You can see this in action when streaming services offer suggested content based on your previous viewing or listening habits.
Other types of targeting can include cross-device so that you can target viewers on television, mobile, or laptop. Contextual advertising can also break down demographics by the publisher, app, or channel.
Methods of OTT Advertising
There are two mains ways you can deliver advertising on OTT platforms. These are server-side ad insertion and client-side ad insertion. Both have benefits and drawbacks.
Server-side ad insertion is a little more effective. As the advertising is placed into the stream from the server end. It gives an uninterrupted video stream that can not be taken out by adblocking software.
Client-side is more frequently used, but as it is from an outer source that is not part of the stream, it is prone to blocking and hackers. It has a little less flexibility, though you still get many of the benefits of an OTT service.
What Are Problems With OTT?
The biggest problem facing the OTT market is a wealth of choice becoming available. Netflix is just one of many subscription streaming services. Disney+, HBO Go, and Hulu are examples of the much more available.
If you add in smaller, nice streaming sites for content such as documentaries, horror, and others, then the choice available to a marketer becomes a problem. If the advertiser encounters this, think how a consumer may feel. It may be a case that saturation of the market could cause some services to crash, leading to an exodus to the larger streaming sites.
With more OTT services becoming available, tougher restrictions on content licensing and restrictions may come into place. As competition increases, the bigger services will begin to assert more control over their programming and content. This protection against migration to other services may mean that consumer data becomes harder to access from some OTT companies.
Mobile Only OTT Services
While most streaming services are available through mobile anyway, some companies have tried to launch specific mobile on streaming services. Generally, they have been launched with mixed results. The most recent was Quibi, which was launched to a tepid reception in the US.
Why Use Mobile OTT Now?
While it is reported that 63% of OTT viewing goes on via television sets, almost 12% happens on mobile phones. This was before the COVID crisis, after which mobile ad spending increased drastically. However, it was also reported that mobile users spend a lot more time watching programming on a mobile device, hinting that they are a more engaged audience than a television one.
The Impact of COVID on Mobile OTT
COVID and its resulting social isolation strategies have meant that entertainment streaming, through services or apps, has had a boost in popularity. With a looming economic downturn, this means that many providers may actually increase the opportunities for OTT marketers.
These could come in the form of pop up ads or information buttons, the kind you get on a webpage, or when watching a Youtube video. They may allow you to buy products featured on a show by clicking the button while it plays. For instance, Hulu has already begun announcing space for paid pause ads in its programming.
Tips for Mobile OTT
When utilizing mobile OTT for marketing, start by discussing available options for OTT services with your partners to understand the tools available. They will know if you will benefit more from the placement of menu ads or paused content ads.
Make any marketing actionable. The ad should increase brand engagement. This may be through data capture and immediate purchasing or download of a product.
Match and tailor your advertisement with your target audience. Utilize the power of the interactive nature and ability to target specific persons. Try different offers and analyze their success.
Make sure that viewers are aware of your brand early in the advertisement. Consider showing logos at the beginning, or make sure they are viewed throughout the entire mobile advertisement.
How Will I Know Mobile OTT is Working?
Mobile OTT can be measured in very specific ways, as can most OTT advertising. Feedback will be provided in a range of different ways.
This starts by letting you know if viewers watch the whole ad or not. It will also give a breakdown of which viewers actually saw the advertisement. Finally, it will let you know how many viewers actually made an interaction, such as purchase, app download, or website visit as a result of the advertisement.
The Future of Mobile OTT
Mobile OTT is a burgeoning market and signs point to it getting bigger as new technologies emerge. One opportunity is its integration into augmented reality. Many mobile users are already familiar with this when using Snapchat filters or anything that add digital imaging to a picture or video taken on the device.
One of these is an AR feature that allows marketers content to be placed inside a stream. For example, you could watch a movie and a billboard in the background could display marketing content specifically aimed at a consumer. This ad could change depending on the demographic, location, device, and such forth.
Implementeing Mobile OTT
Once you have looked at the benefits of Mobile OTT, it is time to begin forming a strategy and plan. This can ensure maximum efficiency for your campaign and can be done using any pre-existing marketing data you may already have.
If you are looking for assistance when implementing mobile OTT, our OTT services are exceptional. We can have your business advertised quickly, with precise targeting and analytics. Visit our website and message us today so we can drive sales and conversions in your business!
