What Does OTT Mean in Marketing?

Woman on tablet streaming TV.The ways of marketing are constantly changing, predominantly due to the many advancements in technology that are occurring. In the past, we all had to watch the same limited television shows on the same limited cable TV channels during scheduled times. Now, we can watch our favorite shows at any time of the day or night, thanks to OTT.

With the addition of OTT, streaming your favorite shows and movies has never been easier, opening many new marketing opportunities for businesses. InnoVision can work with businesses to create a marketing strategy using OTT to target specific audiences to produce better results. Still, OTT is a generally new phrase that leaves many business owners wondering what it is and what exactly OTT means in marketing.

Read on for more information on OTT and how it impacts marketing.

What Does OTT Mean in Marketing?

OTT stands for “over-the-top,” and it refers to streaming devices that deliver content to an audience using the internet as its platform. It may seem like OTT gets its name from being a grand type of marketing strategy. Instead, it refers to just marketing over top of the streaming service platform. The streaming service allows consumers to stream TV or movies, and when you’re not using cable or broadcasting, you’re streaming that show over the top of those platforms. It opens many doors in marketing.

In the past, nearly everyone consumed their media through television or a broadcasting system. This would put all the marketing and advertising power in the hands of the cable system in control of that network. Now, people can fine-tune their media preferences while also using different devices to do so. Marketing can use this newfound convenience to target more specific audiences more often, using advertisements that engage an audience more than ever.

How Is It Used?

OTT marketing is used through internet providers. Instead of paying cable providers or satellite providers, consumers now pay the internet providers, allowing them to access the internet and then access the streaming provider of their choice. A few of the ways people use OTT are through smart televisions, personal computers, tablets, and mobile devices.

OTT marketing typically happens in the form of video advertisements through video OTT services such as Hulu, Netflix, and Disney+. These streaming networks bring in millions of viewers daily, creating a plethora of marketing opportunities.

Video isn’t the only way that OTT marketing is used, however. Other OTT services can use avenues such as audio to reach their consumers. Services like Audible and Spotify are two OTT platforms that would work well with audio OTT marketing strategies. Lastly, voice OTT services like Skype and WhatsApp create another possible way to reach consumers.

What Are the Benefits?

The benefits of OTT in marketing are numerous, but one of the most notable benefits is that it allows advertisers to advertise in a new way. For example, companies such as InnoVision can now help businesses go around expensive cable companies and TV broadcasting advertising. They can also help businesses reach their audiences in a more targeted way than before, and those are only a few ways it outperforms old advertising methods. Here are a few more.

Keeps Audience Attention

Maintaining your audience’s attention throughout the entirety of your advertisement is one of the key benefits of this marketing strategy. With OTT marketing, commercials are typically unable to be skipped. The digital format makes it impossible to fast forward through them, meaning that many people are forced to watch the whole ad. While some platforms have an option to pay a higher fee to avoid commercials altogether, many users don’t choose to do the upgrade.

Another way this option can keep your audience’s attention is by being available on multiple platforms. If a user is watching something on their phone and then switch to their iPad or mobile device, they’ll likely see the same advertisement again. The more they see the ad, the more likely they are to click through or visit the company sponsoring it. And because many people have more than one device that they use to stream, OTT marketing is extremely effective.

Target Specific Viewers

When advertisements are marketed on cable TV, they hit a wide variety of viewers with no real clue of how that information will be received—or who will receive it. Those ads cannot take into account the viewers’ demographics to make the most of their advertising. OTT is to get more information on viewers than what was previously possible.

OTT marketing can hone in on key demographics for viewers. Location, age, gender, and education can all be considered to target the intended audience for the advertisement. This used to be done generally based on what someone was watching, but it can dive deeper than that now. Now it can figure out a viewer demographic, regardless of what they’re watching, and create ads between the program specifically targeted to them based on their demographics, internet use, search habits, and recent purchases. For instance, a young boy and older woman could be watching the same show but be shown distinct advertisements based on their demographics.

Utilize Analytics Better

It’s not enough to just target one general group of people. Now, we have the technology to learn more about each person watching OTTs and can also learn about their behavior. It provides advertisers with more information than just whether someone watched your commercial. They could see how many views your advertisement gets in total, how long users watched it, if they clicked through, and more. With that information, advertisers can fine-tune their advertisements to produce better results. This information can now be processed quickly and often and utilized to create higher-quality content.

 

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