State Of Video In The Current Age
While we have fairly established that video advertising is on the rise and it only gets bigger and better, beyond a reasonable doubt, let’s look at its current state of evolution, our experience and the path we expect it to take. Contextual video Ads, gaming/in-app ads, OTT, CTV, data-led video ads etc. are some of the key areas where the next growth story is poised to come from, given the changes in the ecosystem and the apprehensions around behavioural advertising in the next 2-3 years.
Augmenting open internet with the walled gardens (need of the hour)- Needless to say, social media video ads seem indispensable at this point of time and hardly any media mix can be seen without them. However, with the advent of evolved Adtech offerings (OTTs investing heavily in data) around deterministic data to target consumers outside of social, things are changing. The Flipkart Hotstar partnership deserves a mention here and that Advertisers are increasingly realizing the importance of understanding purchase behavior, spending capacity during the very early phase of awareness to reach out to relevant audiences while leveraging video as a medium. Example- There’s no point in reaching out to a user for an early IPO offer/ Tech Fund investment instrument only because they have shown interest in investment. Understanding the market maturity of the user, age, years of working, risk appetite etc. would determine if they are a fit for that particular product communication. We also have a partnership with Affle (Media Smart) in this regard and the engagement received by running ads on pre-determined segments have been significantly above industry benchmarks especially on shorter videos (<25secs).
Our practical experience - We have seen the splurge in video over the past 1.5 years across verticals and especially BFSI. The need for rising financial aspirations of the youth, women actively engaging in investment and general awareness around investor education has led to brands relying heavily on video, as far as storytelling is concerned. These are not just plain direct buys on finance portals anymore, rather calibrated use of the medium through programmatic buying, across YouTube, OTT and open exchange in the top funnel. The availability of 1st party data makes it viable for the advertiser to include/exclude previously engaged audience for future product communication depending on the demography they are looking to target for a particular instrument.
Next wave of growth…
CTV and household sync- There has been increased noise around CTV adoption globally and definitely in India. We see the likes of Media Smart, Samsung etc. making a major push in this regard. Although, CTV is a guaranteed channel of reaching out to the most premium urban population, concerns around pricing, very broad level targeting, measurability etc. are challenges for faster adoption and seems a mid to long shot for now. The ability to sync Ads shown on CTV with other devices in the household to provide a consistent experience across devices is also gaining traction.
Contextual Video in a cookie-less world - Use of computer vision to tag preprocessed videos, segregating the audio from videos and then converting them into texts for smart tagging is a viable method of connecting with your consumer. Example- Tagging homemade recipe videos with edible oil ads. What the rate of adoption is going to be in India is a matter of debate, but there’s no doubt that when the cookie drops this does seem a way to navigate through such an environment.
Plugging the gap and unlocking greater value
Reach and frequency control- There’s no dearth of supply as far as video is concerned, be that on an open exchange or premium OTT inventory. While it is easier to control exposure at a time period or campaign lifetime level through a single DSP in an open exchange environment, the ability to achieve the same objective while buying inventory on multiple OTTs is yet to evolve fully. The need for exposure control while reaching out to overlapping audiences across multiple channels has paved the way for the evolution of a video marketplace. Agencies have realized the importance of bundling together multiple video inventory sources through a single buying platform to ensure budgets adhere to a universal frequency capping and ensure non-duplicated reach.
The author is Abhishek Sharma, Partner – Digital and Lead – Programmatic, DDB Mudra Group
