As we approach NAB Show, OTT advertising is on the industry’s mind like never before. Nearly all the major broadcasters and streaming providers have embraced some form of advertising to increase ARPU and move to business models that are sustainable over the long term.
Server-side ad insertion (SSAI) is the central cog in OTT advertising because it joins streaming technology with adtech. Any issues with the SSAI and valuable advertising revenue is lost. On the other hand, SSAI has the ability to transform advertising revenues and empower providers to compete on the digital stage.
The key to maximising SSAI revenues is to allow broadcasters/customers to create an ad product that boosts the traditional benefits of TV by adding the modern benefits of digital advertising.
TV’s traditional benefits
- Mass reach: Nothing offers mass reach in a short period of time like TV. It also has the ability to drive discussion and get in the public psyche – it creates “water cooler” moments that are increasingly hard for advertisers to find elsewhere.
- Quality of delivery: Nowhere else can advertisers get a broadcast-quality 15-30-second ad with such high engagement and view-through rates.
Digital advertising benefits
- Addressability: In the digital realm, advertisers expect addressability. Broadcasters and streaming providers must convince brands to increase spend on TV rather than YouTube or TikTok – which both offer fantastic targeting.
- Programmatic: There is great potential to increase fill-rates by adopting programmatic. It helps secure the highest possible CPM for each available ad spot.
- Measurement: Real-time measurement of ad views is essential for advertisers to tweak and improve their campaigns. It’s what they do across other digital channels so they want to do the same with OTT.
SSAI has the power to deliver an appealing blend of both worlds: the mass reach and viewer experience of TV and the advanced advertising benefits of digital.
Implementing SSAI to unlock the full value of OTT advertising can be complex. Here are the key considerations for broadcasters and streaming providers to enhance their advertising offerings and grow revenues:
Scale and Reliability
TV’s mass reach creates valuable water-cooler moments that advertisers are increasingly struggling to find elsewhere.
Live streaming and major sports have mass appeal and are therefore highly valuable. But applying addressability and one-to-one measurement at scale is impossible without a dynamic prefetch extension to your SSAI. Otherwise it is highly likely that ad-decisioning servers will time out and fail to return a response.
It’s important to be real about concurrency. Concurrency means the number of viewers watching at the same time. It’s not an average over a day, or a period of play, it’s minute-by-minute.
Mass reach is not only the domain of live streaming. VOD creates water-cooler fortnights. Some shows are a must-watch. Remember how Tiger King made Joe Exotic a household name in the space of a fortnight? Even though viewers are not pressing “play” at the same time, they are doing so in a short timeframe and putting extra demand on the streaming and advertising tech.
Maximizing inventory
In live sports, many advertising opportunities are missed because they’re so challenging to access. A half-time ad break in a soccer match can be planned for. The timing is dependent on the referee’s whistle, but the duration of the ad break and session ID is known in advance.
But what makes sport so compelling are the twists and turns, in other words: the unexpected. If a World Cup soccer match goes to penalties then all of a sudden an unplanned, but incredibly valuable ad break, is created immediately before the first penalty kick. We’ve seen audiences double between the end of extra time and the start of penalties.
Dynamic prefetch with contingency ad pods is essential to capitalise on these highly engaging and valuable moments.
Campaign management
SSAI is not simply a case of switching on a tap and letting the ads flow in. It must be integrated closely with the adtech ecosystem to deliver ad operations teams the right data to manage their campaigns. In order to consistently deliver the highest fill-rates, real-time measurement of ads viewed must be surfaced within a live 24/7 campaign dashboard.
In OTT, too much advertising is measured by ads stitched. That method is not sufficient for ad ops to make informed decisions about their campaigns.
UX and complexity
SSAI delivers a consistent, seamless viewer experience across all content types and devices. It effectively replicates the experience of traditional TV. It also goes some way beyond that.
SSAI must support all kinds of UX features, from clickable ads to scrubbing. Increasingly, viewers are expecting longer DVR windows, meaning the SSAI must be able to support whatever business logic is required to maximise the potential of advertising in live-rewind mode.
As you can see, SSAI is capable of delivering a huge amount of added value to OTT advertising propositions. As the industry’s reliance on advertising revenue grows, it is increasingly important that broadcasters and streaming providers offer the best possible ad product to the market in order to deliver better value and appeal to more advertisers.
Book a meeting at NAB Show to find out more about what SSAI can do for your advertising business.