The OTT advertising market is full of strange phenomena, and advertising sponsors say no one can be trusted

What was the last ad you saw? Chanel, BMW, or something else?

Have you ever liked a WeChat ad in Moments?

In fact, it is not only the ads in the circle of friends that have obvious personalized labels. On the large screen in the family living room, the personalized and accurate push ads with users as the core are widely praised. Compared with the push ads with thousands of faces, this customized advertisement is more popular. Based on what market prospects did the personalized and popular ads come into being, operate and make profits?

With the explosion of the family living room economy, users are returning to the living room, and the large screen in the family living room has become a piece of cake for advertisers and operators. According to data from Aowei Cloud Network, the household penetration rate of OTT terminals in China will reach 45% in 2017, and the TV audience is shifting from traditional TV to OTT terminals. China's monthly active OTT terminals cover 236 million users, and daily active terminals cover 153 million users. Based on the increasingly explosive growth of the user group, user demand has stimulated the rapid rise of the OTT market, and the commercial value brewing behind it is immeasurable. The scale of OTT terminals has been rapidly upgraded, and the OTT advertising market has entered the blue ocean. The testing and staking of advertising giants have also driven the restlessness of the entire advertising industry. However, in terms of the current development and maturity of various industrial chains, as well as OTT advertising itself, from the four aspects of OTT advertising channels, forms, charging standards, and delivery effects, there are still some drawbacks.

Is the supply side facing reform?

After the OTT advertising market exploded, the entire upstream and downstream of the industry chain were ready to take action, using their respective advantages to rapidly expand their business areas and lay out downstream capabilities. It seems to be a natural thing, but water is limited. If too much drainage is done, the original vast ocean can only become as quiet as a stream. From the current OTT advertising channels, advertisers can place advertisements through advertising agencies, TV companies, content providers, licensees, etc. There are limited places for advertising, which may result in advertising agencies and TV companies selling the same advertising space. Advertisers are dazzled when choosing advertising channels, and the budget allocation for advertising must also be able to withstand the budget and spend time.

Advertising: "Brutal" outflanking and detouring

Advertisers now prefer large-screen smart ads. Why do they prefer smart large-screen ads? First of all, it is difficult to accurately target traditional TV ads. When advertisers place ads, they don’t know who the user in front of the big screen is, and they can’t face real users, or they don’t know what the family consumption attributes are. In addition, traditional ads are easily affected by multiple ads and interfere with each other. In addition, traditional TV ads are affected by channels, time periods, programs and other dimensions, and the cost is high, but the user reach rate is a shortcoming. However, the traditional large-screen TV is a good screen, with strong advertising effects, and multi-user dissemination, giving users a high credibility index. The Internet advertising display screen is small and cannot clearly display the product effect. When users watch videos, recharging membership also causes a phenomenon of advertising drainage, and the ads cannot accurately reach users. Users can refuse to browse, and the forced exposure of ads is reduced, which is easy to be blocked by users. In addition, the small screen leads to a reduction in the number of users facing a dissemination at one time. There are many Internet ads and loose audits, which give users a feeling of distrust. However, based on the user’s previous viewing habits, the user’s preference for a certain type of brand or product can be analyzed, and accurate demand advertising can be placed. In contrast, the explosion of OTT advertising can be said to have absorbed the advantages of the two major advertising camps and made up for their shortcomings. OTT advertising can be delivered to multiple users by virtue of the large screen of smart TVs, and can improve user reach rate based on big data technology. It can analyze user consumption attributes, family characteristics and social factors based on user viewing behavior to achieve precise advertising delivery and personalized services, avoid large-scale and explosive advertising delivery, and reduce advertisers' cost output without actual conversion rate.

Currently, OTT advertising is delivered in a rich and innovative form. Advertisers can deliver ads through TV system operators. This type of advertising mainly includes power-on and power-off ads, screen saver ads, page (primary and secondary) ads, corner banners, shopping malls and other ads. Power-on ads are favored by advertisers because of their "domineering president" style, forced exposure and wide coverage. Advertisers can also deliver ads through content operators, such as iQiyi and Tencent. Advertisers can create personalized patch ads based on the content: Band-Aids, random patches, native patches and other categories, which are deeply integrated with video content and have strong scalability.

However, if the advertising is not well planned and rushed for a long time, it will be counterproductive and reduce the user experience. Many users complained that this large-scale advertising layout was launched, and an advertisement appeared in the middle of the video. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television previously issued a statement that it is strictly forbidden to insert advertisements during the broadcast of a TV series. Nowadays, the popularity of patch ads and poor precision delivery results will inevitably cause users to shed tears and miss the past!

Is marketing that is not for profit a hooliganism?

In terms of charging standards, OTT advertising is now charged in the same way as Internet advertising, and is charged according to CPM. Currently, the most valuable OTT advertising is the boot-up advertising, which is 20-30 yuan/CPM for picture boot-up advertising and about 50 yuan/CPM for video boot-up advertising. At present, advertisers mainly favor boot-up advertising, and the ads on other fixed advertising spaces of smart TVs are mainly free. OTT advertising is an accessory that has benefited from the explosion of smart TVs in recent years, and the new rules are not set when they are just established. At present, there is no strict and fair charging standard for advertising in the OTT market. Those who enter the market first have the right to speak in the industry and dominate the operation of the market. On the one hand, they have higher advertising costs, and on the other hand, they provide free advertising space. After all, the wool comes from the sheep. The author can't help but think that marketing that is not for profit is hooliganism!

Advertiser: Who should I believe? How many times has it been broadcast?

From the perspective of delivery effect, the reach of OTT ads is mainly achieved through the ad monitoring system of Miaozhen and ADmaster. Since the fee is charged according to the display, the conversion is difficult to be evaluated. The current delivery effect is still evaluated by the number of ad displays. The number of ad displays has become the main focus of advertisers' payment. Advertisers or TV manufacturers sell ad spaces to advertisers for advertising, and advertisers pay fees based on the effect of advertising. The basis for this is the number of ad delivery. Advertisers use the data of third-party ad monitoring agencies as the voucher for charging advertisers the final fee, including ad traffic, number of ads and other concerns. Advertisers will have a description of the results of advertising delivery. Advertisers will cooperate with third-party monitoring agencies, and TV manufacturers will also monitor the results of advertising delivery. The advertising delivery effects of these companies will be different. For the benefit itself, if the budget allocation of advertisers is not proportional to the output of brand influence, advertisers will question the advertising delivery: Who should I believe, and how many times has it been broadcast!

With the steady increase in the penetration rate of smart TVs, China's OTT advertising market will also reach a critical point of explosion in 2017. Compared with the traditional satellite TV advertising at the level of hundreds of billions, although OTT advertising is still like the cherry on the cake, at the current growth rate of more than 90%, this market is expected to exceed 10 billion yuan in value in the next three years. The scale of the 10 billion market undoubtedly requires the support of big data technology to achieve accuracy and transparency. Based on big data technology and thinking, advertisers can not only understand the future dividend period of the current OTT market through the data scale of smart TV terminals, but also allocate advertising budgets. Big data can also analyze user portraits, consumption attributes, family structure, viewing preferences and other dimensions based on the behavior of smart TV users, and provide advertisers with precise delivery strategies. Nowadays, big data is responding to policy dividends, and the technology is updating rapidly and developing strongly. According to a statement from a third-party data company, its data scale can connect the same source data of smart TV users at the live broadcast and on-demand ends. This means that if the user time remains unchanged in front of the same large screen, the proportion of user time allocation can be effectively utilized, providing advertisers with precise strategies for budget allocation for live broadcast and on-demand advertising and monitoring of advertising effects. Refined user needs also help users save time and improve time efficiency in the fragmented era.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.