The past few months have seen a major switch in the way we engage with video online as the continual rise and popularity of both online streaming services and short form social videos such as tok-tok and reels reach the forefront of our daily lives.
As a self-professed media addict and well, to put it simply, nerd, what has continually caught my eye week on week is the slow but sure switch to double ad placements that have been appearing in both paid and organic videos.
The first time I saw this trend start to pop up was when I was streaming (escape to the chateau) and just as the roof on a gorgeous 17th century castle was about to be replaced, 2 short 10” video ads played mid-way through the program.
It was quite jarring for a marketer, especially one whose living is dependent on often placing instream video ads onto people’s socials feeds – ahh the hypocrisy! My first thought (after wondering whether the roof was fixed) was to double-check that my subscription was in fact paid and not a free trial which carried the prefix of ads as an inclusion. It didn’t ... and so the plot thickens!
A few days later I was on YouTube and again, 2 ad placements played at the start of the video, so I did a quick google search and got the below back: “YouTube is playing double ads at the beginning of videos to ‘get the ads out of the way’ at the beginning of the program in aid to limit the disruption caused by mid-roll ads”
Weeks passed by and platform by platform I started to see this double ad placement pop up in everything from Facebook Watch, IGTV, Tik-Tok and even organic reels on celebrity/influencer accounts!
So, what does this trend tell us? At its basis, we can see that streaming platforms/social networks are taking a traditional TVC approach to video advertising. This isn’t surprising as the opportunity for TVCs to be impactful has severely decreased since the switch away from free to air or even programmed subscriptions such as the OG version of Foxtel has occurred.
This begs the question, are paid subscriptions to streaming services such as Netflix, Stan and Disney+ really enough to make the impact that paid TVCs and commercial deals from advertisers can on their profit margins?
And more importantly, are these streaming services willing to let the possibility of such big bucks float them by when the traditional TVC format is so fundamentally written into our media consumption habits.
My thoughts … watch this space, especially if you’re a digital ad buyer/trader, because I don’t think we’ve seen the last of how this is going to affect CPMS and market delivery!