New Avenues for Companies to Advertise: Coming Soon to Your Favorite Streaming Platforms
As advertisers are tired of the same old media mix, costly tv ads, ongoing social media regulations and restrictions and the upcoming third-party cookie demise, there is opportunity to explore how and where to reach target audiences in new ways.
Meanwhile, on a new block with not so new kids, increased streaming consumption, recent news regarding Netflix, CNN+ and other streaming services has advertisers shifting gears. Could streaming ads be the way to easy street? Perhaps. Here’s why companies should explore new inventory and placements with streaming ads.
- Streaming services with new ad options
As Netflix stock goes down (about -$100 per share after its recent earnings report), with a 200,000 decrease in subscribers, layoffs, increased competition and Russia-related implications, their new needs to drive increased revenue have surfaced. Netflix’s long-avoided pressure to allow ads in-turn looms.
Advertisers will soon be able to reach this untouched subscriber audience of 222-million (plus ~100-million more users) on the platform in a new (and inevitably shiny) way. Prices for Netflix ads will likely start high, but that is typical for new, early-stage, ad products. Additionally, if Netflix’s content remains high-quality, their audience, and now ads, will inevitably do the same.
- More ad opportunities on streaming services & apps with little to no subscription cost
As we’ve learned with the recent, abrupt, start and stop of new streaming services like CNN+, which didn’t make it after only garnering 150,000 subscribers in its first-two weeks, people don’t want to pay more for streaming services.
Enter more advertising opportunities. Even CNN says it will now instead offer more, free, ad-supported content instead of making politically affiliated and interested viewers pay out of their own pockets to watch. Ads over subscription costs will be the name of the Netflix (and Disney+) game too. Ads will outnumber streaming subscription costs at the end of the day.
- And don’t forget ads on other established streaming platforms
Leading streaming players such as Amazon, Hulu and YouTube that already have mass audiences are hungry for a bigger, less expensive, piece of the streaming pie. They will in-turn continue to follow the above trajectories (ads over subscription costs) too.
They already have droves of advertisers, with many anxious to test drive if they haven’t already and CTV technology and vendors making it seamless to reach target audiences across many prominent streaming platforms. Amazon, Hulu and YouTube will only proceed to build on their Big Tech bases to become even more viable, ad-supported, streaming services. Roku has additionally recognized the need to improve its ad data to enhance its ad product as the revenue stream grows.
Companies should ultimately take advantage of the streaming wars as audiences, brands, consumers and streaming services alike advance toward more options in the wonderful world of advertising.
Rachel Winer is SVP Digital at ROKK Solutions.
