Analysis: Is your idea of a 'perfect measurement' metric getting in the way of OTT exploration?

Over-the-top (OTT), while booming, might still be new territory for brands that are looking to enter the realm. The OTT video market is expected to cross US$200 billion by 2024, with 90% of that value fueled by subscription and advertising revenue. Brands such as Volvo, ZA Cosmetics and skincare brand Senka have since jumped on the trend. Meanwhile, OTT players such as Mediacorp and Viu, as well as agencies which Marketing spoke to recently also said that the platform is increasingly popular among clients.

In a conversation with Marketing, Havas Group's chairman and CEO, India and Southeast Asia, Vishnu Mohan, said the core metrics of reach, recency and frequency still apply and should be used in benchmarking the medium against other platforms such as linear TV and online video. On the other hand, Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific's chief investment officer Paul Shepherd said that while OTT's measurement framework is improving, it still has some way to go.

Another layer of complexity that OTT is navigating in the measurement space is whether OTT should follow TV or digital.

Although brands should not expect a seamless measurement framework as the infrastructure is not connected today, Shepherd told Marketing that brands should still not get caught up with reasons not to start advertising on OTT. "If we believe that experiences can deliver greater brand adjacency and brand consideration, brands should invest a fair percentage of their budget in OTT," he explained.

Also, brands should understand the trends, opportunities and new experiences that OTT can deliver to drive greater considerations for higher outcomes.

If they are still concerned about metrics, then start on the measurement that it is traded on and try converting it back to something that has a currency in their organisation.

It is completely fine to not have a perfect conversion, Shepherd said, but have an expectation on what success looks like. "To create an effective strategy for OTT, brands will need to define what constitutes a successful campaign and ask themselves how can OTT add to that equation. Believe in the capability but don’t enter blindly," Shepherd explained. He added that this might sometimes mean that OTT may not be the right consideration.

For example, if the objective is to have high engagement with 17 to 24 year olds, understand the viewership of OTT and optimise to the best places that achieve success. In this case, OTT may not perform as well as others. Shepherd advises brands to take advantage of the powerful aspects that OTT can deliver compared to other strategies.

Do not let the perfect measurement framework get in the way of testing OTT as a channel.

Ensure that content curation is at the core of your approach, he explained. He warned marketers not to "always believe the volumes that some will say is available in OTT, especially in the world of programmatic". Ultimately, OTT is a phenomenal capability that will continue to grow but may not necessary be a consideration for every single campaign.

Similarly, Mediacorp's VP, digital sales and solutions Jennifer Chase said brands should first define the business outcome of what they want to achieve whether that be increasing brand awareness, driving audience engagement or a more profitable customer action.

Be clear with who you are targeting and whether you look at audience targeting to drive personalisation, content targeting, language targeting or a mix of these.

Companies also then need to define how they want to communicate with their audience - test and learn with different creatives and duration to understand what resonates with users. "This will determine whether you produce a six-second, 15-second or 30-second creative," she explained. Lastly, brands should define their media KPIs - reach and frequency, completion rates and viewability, quality of traffic driven from video ads. 

Chase stressed that brands should measure both their business outcomes and media KPIs. According to her, the market can be way too focused on price as the core metric of success without looking at overall business outcomes, including brand recall, brand awareness and market share. It is a common habit for marketers to hone in on the price when trying out a new technology or platform. However, Chase advised brands to compare the performance with other OTT players instead of merely looking at price.

"Look at the profile of the audience, reach efficiencies, audience engagement, completion rates and viewability through to qualified traffic being sent through. Your OTT strategy should be part of your overall marketing strategy," she added.

It is also important to ensure that online brand presence is built efficiently and effectively across multiple media platforms. This means ensuring the brand is implementing effective frequency management across platforms that it is using.

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Research and evaluate effectiveness

Besides defining what the brand's business goals are and not getting caught up in analysis paralysis, it is also crucial for marketers to go back to basics and do their research to ensure they are working with reputable partners they trust. OTT affords an opportunity to have their ads run against some really premium content, but as with all media, Jason Barnes, PubMatic's chief revenue officer, said some players are better than others. As such, marketers should check which fits better with their brand or campaign.

"The brand advertisers need to work closely with their agencies and tech partners to ensure they are targeting the right audience for their products, and that their technology layer is built correctly for bidding and optimisation," he said. Citing PubMatic's new OTT header bidding product as an example, Barnes said it is aimed at providing more of a TV-like advertising experience for advertisers and consumers, as well as properly price inventory for OTT platforms.

The advantage of programmatic media is that it brings the promise of true audience-based buying to television.

Barnes explained that this means brands need to rigorously evaluate their target audiences and make a decision with their agencies as to which OTT platforms are best to invest in. Brands also need to be sure that the technology that drives the ad-decisioning and spend allocation for OTT campaigns is robust and transparent, he added.

Meanwhile when it comes to evaluating OTT platforms, brands need to evaluate these platforms from an effectiveness perspective to account for how the quality of exposure helps to build brands, rather than a pure cost per mile (CPM) perspective, Chris Myers, regional director, insights at GroupM Asia Pacific told Marketing. He explained that evaluating purely from a CPM perspective will result in OTT vendors always appearing inefficient versus other video options available in the marketplace.

Secondly, it is important that brands consider OTT holistically. This may involve using cross-screen reach planning tools to understand the incremental reach they are getting from OTT investment, but holistic planning does go beyond this, Myers explained. In addition to these two factors, brands should also consider the role that OTT plays in the overall media mix. This essentially means that the quality of longer exposure a brand gets on OTT will serve a different role to the shorter exposure they may get on a different platform. According to Myers, specific roles should be identified for each platform and an understanding of the synergies between them.

Moving beyond traditional metrics

After all the research and evaluation, it is time for brands to take an A/B test approach and have a measurement framework in place to support the pilot whenever it is testing new channels. According to Hemant Menon, associate director, programmatic, Dentsu Aegis Network Singapore, this helps in establishing a hypothesis along with optimising and measuring the key variables important to the brand.

From a campaign lens, Menon always suggests moving beyond the traditional metrics such as completion rate along with enabling OTT buys with brand lift studies to measure the true impact of the channel. He explained that enabling any buy via a programmatic platform always gives advertisers a better control and the same is the case with OTT and other video buys, adding:

An effective way to leverage the OTT space is to use clearly segregated content themes on the platform to your advantage and create a rhythm with the overall content strategy.

Along with this, since creating local original content is a big part of OTT platforms, Menon said that advertisers can partner with the content creators to promote their brands. Also weighing in on the issue was Amirul Idham Shah, manager, addressable strategy at Matterkind, who said that brands do not need to change their entire addressable strategy just for the OTT platform, but instead still on finding the right audiences in the right context.

"Agencies and OTT players should collaborate to ensure that the platform is suitable for the clients’ target audiences, update their creative strategy to make the best use of the platform’s capabilities’ and ensure that there is a robust measurement and evaluation framework to set their strategy up for success," he said.

Ensuring brand messaging is seamless

Before brands get too excited about exploring this new channel, the basics of advertising still apply. According to Anson Tan, GM, new media at Viu Singapore, while it is important for brand messaging to be put across, it should be done in a seamless and non-invasive manner. He explained that at Viu, for example, applies automated machine learning video intelligence to help brands do scene targeting to create highly relevant infoline advertising opportunities.

"For example, we have the technology to engineer promotions for ZA Cosmetics' Bye Bye Shine Essence appearing next to kissing scenes, and Senka’s Perfect White Facial Cleansing Foam to be tagged to crying scenes," he said. Tan also said that the company applied the same technology to its ad-funded productions, such as Challenge Accepted, where local influencers were invited to test out a range of products in a fun and engaging manner. Through scene targeting via automated machine learning video intelligence, users were able to click to purchase products seen in the show directly on Viu and be brought to an eCommerce platform to complete their purchase, Tan added.

Join us on a three-week journey at Digital Marketing Asia 2020 as we delve into the realm of digital transformation, data and analytics, and mobile and eCommerce from 10 to 26 November. Sign up for early bird tickets here!

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