What is OTT Advertising?
OTT Advertising is an abbreviation for Over Top Advertising. OTT Advertising refers to advertising in popular on-demand video and audio platforms. The terms Over the Top originated from the fact that these content providers bypassed the regular content distribution companies like cable companies and reached users directly with content. From an advertiser perspective, any on-demand video or audio platform where users can watch or hear content from a set of curated content is referred to as the OTT platform. OTT platforms make money either through subscription (e.g. Netflix) or through advertising like Hotstar. OTT Advertising refers to the process of placing ads on the platforms that accept paid advertising.
The landscape of OTT Advertising in India
Hotstar is credited with the advent and explosion of OTT Advertising in India. It was one of the first if not the first OTT platform to monetize its content through advertising. Other OTT platforms in India like SonyLiv, Zee5, and others soon followed suit. Live cricket telecasts of the world cup and IPL helped increase the popularity of OTTs and thereby advertising on these platforms. Users liked the additional channel of premium and popular content available on their mobile phones in addition to TV. All OTT platforms in India pushed mobile as the primary channel of consumption of their content and app downloads became the primary objective of these OTT platforms in India. With the increase in the adoption of these apps, OTT advertising in India gained popularity.
OTT Advertising Agency
The Media Ant is one of the pioneer agency in the OTT Advertising world. As OTT advertising is still in its nascent stage, being an OTT advertising agency we work closely with both the OTT platforms and the advertisers to create custom solutions. Advertisers contact us as an OTT advertising agency to understand their needs, find out the right set of OTT platforms, and buy the media space at the right price. In case you are looking for an agency that can help you to advertiser on any of the OTT platforms, The Media Ant is the right choice. You can contact us either through email, chatbot Anto, Whatsapp or call. The Media Ant is the only OTT advertising agency that provides you with an assured flawless execution and the best rate for your media buy. We will recommend the right filters that can be used to reach your target group more effectively.
OTT Advertising Rate
Rates for OTT advertising are broadly 3 types. The first and the most popular is called CPM or Cost per Thousand pricing model. Here you play for every time your ad gets shown to the user. This pricing model is used for both performance and branding campaigns. The second pricing model is a Fixed price. This form of pricing for OTT platform advertising is applicable mainly to high impact medium like Leader Board. Per Day pricing for OTT advertising is used mainly for branding campaigns. Third and the smallest pricing model for OTT Advertising is CPC or Cost per Click. In this pricing model, the advertiser pays only is some clicks on the ad. This ad format is primarily used for performance campaigns.
OTT Advertising Options
The popular advertising options in OTT platforms are video, audio, text, audio + video, and integrations. In addition to this, OTT platforms can also create custom advertising options. For e.g Product Integration during cricket matches or movies. However, the most popular advertising options on OTT platforms in India continue to be video ads and audio ads. You can find the complete list of advertising options available in OTT platforms in the Media Options and Pricing tab. The info tab describes the media option.
Advantages of OTT Advertising
There are primarily two advantages of OTT advertising. The first advantage of advertising in OTT is the high reach that the platform provides. The reach of OTT platforms is not confined to urban India or metros. A high chunk of viewership for OTTs come from rural India. The availability of cheap data and affordable smartphones has driven the reach of OTT platforms to even the media dark areas of India. Another factor for the high reach is cricket on the OTT platforms. The second but the more significant advantage of OTT advertising is the personalization of ads. With a plethora of data available on the user from the phone and the ability to personalize ads at the phone level, it makes OTT advertising interesting. A few of the popular filters available for OTT targeting are Geography, Handset type, their behaviour on the platform, carrier, etc.
OTT content includes the audio, video and other media contents that are delivered over the internet and don’t involve any third party in this process. OTT Media majorly has 3 legs:
⇒ Video content streaming or Video OTT: Video content streaming or simply OTT television known as subscription-based video on demand is one of the three legs of OTT where Netflix, amazon prime, Hulu, Zee5, Voot, HotStar, etc. are some of the top examples of such services.
⇒ OTT audio services: The 2nd leg of OTT Media Services consists of OTT audio services which include Gaana, Jio-Saavn, Spotify and many more.
⇒ OTT messaging and calling also called VoIP: OTT messaging & calling which is also known as VoIP or voice-over-internet protocol forms the 3rd & final leg of the OTT where WhatsApp, Viber, Skype are some of the prominent examples.
OTT content can be accessed with the help of various apps. as well as on multiple devices for a single user. Mobile phones, Tablets, Smart TVs, Set-top Boxes, Gaming Consoles like Xbox, all can be used to access the services. Chromecast and Amazon Firestick are also of the modes to access the services, this can be used to cast the screen on Television.
All the OTT services are mostly subscription-based and sometimes even free i.e., they cost you only the data with either full or partial access to the services. These platforms/services have changed the way how we as consumer consume the content, it has transformed the controlled and distributed world of media content into easily accessible and made personalized and selective media streaming possible at the disposal of the consumer. All these benefits and many others have made these OTT services more lucrative and appealing to the consumer which can evidently be seen in the ascent that OTT platforms have witnessed over the years.
Not surprisingly enough, OTT platforms have become a great source of advertising because of the upsurge. More and more companies and brands have been observed directing their line of advertising towards OTT services. OTT advertising is a very promising one provided you curate your advertisement properly and one must leverage and bank upon it. With the current uptrend of continuous rise in the number of users/subscribers of OTT services and budding growth prospective because of the great value, it holds is seamless and it would not be wrong to say that OTT is here to stay and similar growth projections can be expected in the future.
Shubindia is the leading OTT Advertising Agency offering services in the prominent OTT platforms Pan India with customizable solutions & best in class affordable media services.