How OTT And CTV Are Shaping Marketing

Like smartphones and social media, text messaging and FaceTime it’s hard to remember a world that didn’t include YouTube.

As part of the technology that rolled out over a few short years, YouTube is one of the driving forces that changed life and pushed the world into the digital age.

Yet, it still seems impossible that YouTube has only been around since 2005. Started by three employees working together at PayPal, the site was born over frustration with trying to send a video clip over email. It was a pain, remember?

YouTube’s influence only grew when it was purchased by Google in 2006, when the platform had only 65 employees, and soon it would become an Internet-centered entertainment world.

The Rise of OTT and CTV

The idea that videos and even full television episodes or movies could be delivered over the Internet revolutionized how people consumed entertainment. The delivery of entertainment via Internet called Over The Top (OTT), which includes Connected TV (CTV), was more than just the latest development in an ever-changing advancement from cable to satellite and then Internet-delivered streaming. This changed not only how television and movies were delivered but even how they were made.

Unsurprisingly, it has also changed how entertainment is paid for. Netflix and Prime launched as subscription-paid services with no ads, but as Hulu gained traction with free options that included advertising, it seems that some consumers don’t mind ads paying for their content.

And there’s a lot of opportunity there, with two-thirds of Americans using CTV and consuming CTV content for an average of 80 minutes each day.

Are All Ads Equal?

Marketers involved with CTV and OTT advertising have identified some trends among advertisers. The pre-roll ad is preferred over the mid- or post-roll ad. That is when the viewer is fresh, excited to sit down and watch some entertainment, and most ready to receive a marketing message.

OTT and CTV advertising requires marketers to dig into the types of entertainment content their audiences are consuming, but unlike social media marketing or some other formats, when a consumer is being blasted with multiple messages within a single screen, television advertising allows for better focus.

What’s Next?

Here are some trends shaping marketing within these types of visual content sites:

Brand Extensions

A consumer watching a video can click on an interactive feature that is a call-to-action. The button might say “send it phone,” allowing a promotion or URL to be delivered to their phone without interrupting the viewing experience. The consumer finishes the ad and makes their purchase right from their mobile device.

Shorts

Mini advertisements are making their way across platforms, offering consumers a quick hit that isn’t long enough to make them get anxious for the entertainment to return to the screen. This format is often humorous, with quick, memorable storylines.

Growth of OTT

Marketing through OTT is expected to grow by over $10 billion throughout 2022, with personalization of content and a blurring between entertainment and advertising dominating the conversation around OTT marketing.

If you’ve been considering expanding your marketing budget around YouTube or one of the streaming services, contact us at DirectMail.io. And take a look at our all-in-one automated marketing platform to learn how all of your marketing efforts could be streamlined into mere minutes.