Provocateur:

Although how we consume content is constantly changing, consumption is way up since quarantine has been in place. And with production studios and movie theaters shut down for so long, consumers have been and continue to discover new shows or shows that are new to them directly through over-the-top (OTT) and connected TV (CTV) services.

Year over year from March 2019 to March 2020, the number of hours spent on OTT devices jumped 81 percent with roughly 4 billion hours of consumption across the U.S. in that time period.

A quick look at consumption stats shows the stark reality for traditional television versus OTT and CTV. Cable, satellite, and telecom TV subscriptions are declining over 7 percent year over year and almost 20 percent of U.S. households have cut the cord. Conversely, the number of households using streaming services has jumped 24 percent and over 70 percent of broadband households have at least one OTT product.

What does this mean? It means that while linear TV advertising—and associated budgets— continue to shrink, OTT and CTV consumption continues to grow. And that’s good news for advertisers because there are more and better opportunities to advertise there than ever before.

Addressable and targetable

With OTT and CTV providers constantly adding both new and older but beloved movies and shows, there is always fresh content for viewers. This holds a big advantage over the paucity of new linear TV content that has been caused by a pause in production.

Plus, primary screens are getting smarter: Smart TV adoption is up significantly, some with Roku right into the unit. Many viewers also use their main screen as the primary method for watching Apple TV. And while NetFlix is still ad-free, many of the most popular platforms are ad-supported, including Hulu, NBC’s Peacock, and nearly all of the MVPDs.

Additionally, OTT and CTV ads are addressable and targetable and with digital measurement metrics in place, perhaps most importantly, they’re attributable. And users cannot skip over or DVR out ads on most OTT and CTV platforms.

It’s not just the raw numbers that are growing either, it’s the demographics. While Gen X and millennials may boast more cord-cutters and cord-nevers in their ranks, Gen X and boomers are also cutting the cord and moving to streaming at an increasingly high rate.

Perhaps the most impactful reason to advertise on OTT and CTV is the measurability and lack of waste. Different households will be served different ads based on demographic data. Some viewers within the household will even see different ads on different devices while watching the same show that their parent or spouse or siblings are watching on another unit.

The good news is that if you are new to OTT and CTV advertising, there’s nothing to fear; you can leverage the same spots or the same kind of spots that you would if you were advertising on linear TV. The advantage is that you create edits and variants targeted to the households you are trying to reach.

If you are looking for a way to eliminate waste, drive more relevancy, and advertise to people where they are really watching, learn more about how to effectively employ OTT and CTV advertising.

About the Author

Hamid Qayyum, SVP of digital solutions, leads Stirista’s Digital Solutions team driving media activation. He has over 25 years of experience in advertising/media and recently led Altice’s advertising division’s (a4) strategic partnerships efforts, where he focused on sales partnerships with MVPDs, agencies, and brands. He was also responsible for forging relationships with inventory and data vendors. Prior to Altice, Hamid has had senior roles with various agencies and data/media companies focusing on partnerships and business development in both the TV and digital advertising practices.