According to the survey entitled “Outlook for Data-Driven Marketing 2018”, published by Winterberry Group, in the United States the forecasts concerning the advertising budget devoted to OTT (over-the-top) video streaming in 2019 have shown an increase of 20%, that is to say about 2,6 billion dollars. Actually, we are talking about quite a lot of money, despite the fact that it cannot compare with the 69,2 billion dollars invested by marketers into TV advertising. In the overall scenario of digital advertising, though, despite being the fastest growing sector, OTT videos are still at the bottom of the list followed only by the digital radio adv. The search function, for instance, accounts for over 53 billion dollars, while display accounts for 34 and the paid social for 29.

However, over the top videos are bound to take market share away from TV. And, according to Idate Digiworld, by 2022 they will account for 130 billion dollars (World TV and video market).
We then wonder what is actually hindering investments. The answer is simple: metrics.

Since each OTT multi-media channel has its own set of metrics and considering that users use OTT contents on multiple devices and platforms, designing an OTT campaign requires a lot of expertise and hard work. Although OTT videos represent the best of TV and the digital world together, it is actually quite difficult to assess them.

In other words, when marketers deal with traditional TV advertising, then can easily obtain a general overview of the audience watching their ads.  Whereas, with  Over-the-top videos they have a much harder life doing it and they can benefit from real advertising opportunities only when users broadcast contents themselves (Will Ad Measurement Challenges Stifle OTT Growth?).

The quality and quantity of data produced OTT videos are not questionable, though. A survey conducted by Advertiser Perceptions revealed that 58% of US marketers  claimed targeting to be one of the biggest advantages offered by OTT advertising. But only 39% has mentioned metrics precision. Such data has also been confirmed by the report entitled “TV is Total Video: Predicting OTT and the Future of Video Advertising”, commissioned by SpotX and carried out by Kagan. 78% of advertisers indicated data assessment as the biggest challenge connected to the choice of audience-based advertising.

The number of people watching videos is increasing steadily, as well as the demand for OTT services from users. Consequently, marketers are expected to follow. It is no coincidence, then, that 80% of interviees agreed that the audience unpredictability has led to the need to display contents on different platforms, and that over  100% of marketers consider this to be the biggest change in their strategies.

Thanks to users and marketers’ interest, OTT services can expect to have a bright future ahead. At this point, the issue of metrics and their assessment is definitely a challenge to be won pretty soon.  

What do you think about OTT services? What are their strengths and weaknessses? Tweet @agostinellialdo.

To find out more about the digital world, you may read my latest book entitled: “People Are Media” 

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