Streaming TV Viewers Complete 98% of All Video Ads, According to New Study
Author: Sami Raim. Source: AdWeek
The OTT audience also tends to be younger and more affluent
The OTT television landscape is now a full-blown dominant force in the video viewing environment according to a new report from FreeWheel, part of Comcast’s advertising solutions teams.
The OTT viewer is young and affluent: according to FreeWheel’s findings, the median OTT viewer is 23 years younger than linear TV viewers, and OTT streaming households tend to make $10,000 more per year than traditional TV households.
OTT services provide benefits for consumers (a customizable viewing experience when they choose to stream), publishers (a premium platform that reaches non-traditional TV viewers) and marketers (a targetable audience of highly engaged viewers).
“New sources of premium inventory coupled with the ability to align delivery with changing consumption habits allows us to better connect with the consumer and ultimately drive more brand value for our client,” said Jon Anselmo, president at Omnicom Media Group.
“A focus on this area now ensures our clients are ready for a future that one could argue is already here,” he said.
FreeWheel found that OTT viewers, on average, complete 98 percent of video ads as compared to ad completion rates on other devices. Tablet users complete 91 percent of video ads, while smartphone users finish 86 percent.
And because OTT viewers spend more time watching programs, the odds are high that they’re seeing plenty of those ads. About 36 percent of OTT viewership is for visits of at least an hour; of that amount of time, 60 percent is spent streaming live content.
All of this adds up to higher brand metrics across the board. OTT viewers showed higher aided awareness of brands and brand favorability than desktop or mobile users, while mobile users still tend to show higher purchase intent.
OTT and the increase in dynamic advertising opportunities in the living room represent a very valuable opportunity for our clients to use precision methodologies to reach viewers who have diversified their viewing habits to include OTT,” said Jonathan Bokor, svp and director of precision video at Publicis Media Exchange.
“We believe that the future of TV will marry the best of linear and digital and when OTT is transacting at scale with more standardized measurement, it will realize its full potential for brand marketers,” he said. “Today, despite the measurement challenges, it represents incremental reach and value for our clients, and we continue to seek out creative solutions to tap into these audiences.”
FreeWheel also found that OTT viewers tend to stream TV throughout the day; streaming peaks slightly in the morning as viewers watch morning news reports, but there is a clear peak on all OTT services for primetime programming.
FreeWheel Advisory Services selected a sample of its U.S. clients who represent 95 percent of OTT-driven impressions and combined those findings with data from Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings for desktop and mobile statistics to complete this report.