58 THE VOD FILES Advertising
So, can anything be done to ensure viewers watch the ads? “Yes”, maintains Goldman. “By making the ads as entertaining as the content – something that has been happening in the UK for decades. As a viewer, I have noticed a marked pickup in the quality of video creative, particularly in the emotional draw of ads, as this drives awareness and engagement.” MacGillivray adds: “It’s important to remember most TV viewing is live, so around 80% of TV ads can’t be skipped. People enjoy good ads, and even love great ones. They only dislike rubbish ads. We just need to make great ads.” BTS’s Buckland believes that broadcasters need to adapt. “The multiplatform world opens up a wealth of opportunity for broadcasters to deliver their content to consumers in different ways, while increasing engagement and improving satisfaction. OTT services lend themselves to that targeted approach, so broadcasters need to maximise that opportunity. They also need to adopt an aggregator approach to advertising. By managing ad placement across broadcast and digital channels, they can become the go-to for all of those campaigns, wherever the commercials will appear.” With all of those factors in mind, what is the right medium for your business? Amber Vellacott says that digital is much more accessible for smaller business sizes and more niche service types. “There does, however, need to be an upskilling of business members to learn how to do these things effectively so money, time and efforts are not wasted.” According to Buckland, it depends on region and how crowded the landscape is for traditional advertisers. “In the Middle East and North Africa, for example, even the larger advertisers are only just I THINK MORE REGULATIONS AND STANDARDS WILL COME INTO PLACE, LIMITING SOME THINGS LIKE TARGETING ANDMESSAGING
starting to look at digital campaigns to complement their linear ones. In Europe, which is considerably more crowded with linear broadcasters, many more advertisers have 360° campaigns covering multiple delivery options.” FUTURE REACH How will these play out in the future? Will digital continue to rise and consume TV altogether? UKTV’s Goldman doesn’t think so. “Despite the headline erosion of audiences, the reach and effectiveness of TV is resilient and continues to hold up. TV can’t be substituted for reach and scale, and it continues to serve advertisers well, because it continues to sell their products and services.” But Buckland believes online advertising will progress and eventually take a significant slice of ad revenue. “I believe TV advertising will still have a place, but the percentage is likely to shift significantly in favour of digital advertising. According to one survey, 66.8% of US media ad budgets will be digital by 2023. It also says that in Asia Pacific, as much of 76% of all ad spend will be digital.” “Online advertising is only going to progress to be more giant over the coming years,” adds Vellacott. “It’s evolving every
day as the internet and platforms continue to grow, and there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight. I think more regulations and standards will come into place as it evolves, limiting some things like targeting and messaging, but nothing that will be detrimental, because the way we, as consumers, consume this kind of marketing will also evolve and adapt accordingly. The future is digital, and it’s time to be ready for it.” Thinkbox sees a future of digitally enhanced TV that will become an advertising powerhouse. “Imagine the possibilities of TV’s ad inventory made addressable at scale,” says MacGillivray. “It is already happening in the UK with Sky’s AdSmart, now in Virgin homes and coming to Channel 4. It is happening with ITV and Amobee. When TV becomes a mass-addressable medium – and it is a when , not an if – no other addressable audio-visual ad offering will come close.” Vellacott concludes with an interesting perspective. While there is a decline in TV viewership with the rise of on-demand tools like Netflix and Amazon Prime, it wouldn’t be a surprise if these start to feature advertising space in coming years. “That would be an interesting collaboration – between TV and digital advertising.”
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