Everyone has their opinion when it comes to delivering top quality content in the quickest way possible. The ‘what’s’ are easily spread across the web. But what’s more important are the ‘how’s’.
Media and OTT companies are all after a slice of the pie that is ‘online streaming’. And, a large pie it is.
Did You Know?
By 2022, OTT revenues will top $83.4 billion.
That’s roughly half of the expected pay-tv revenues by 2022.Which, in turn, are expected to decline steadily over that same period.
That’s not bad for a technology once written off by a few media & entertainment professionals.
However, as the pie becomes larger, more players are picking up plates and reaching for a slice.
According to our estimates, there are 800+ pure-play online video streaming providers available to customers throughout the world.
This growth in video entertainment options hasn’t been matched by an increase in the amount of hours in a day.
Viewers still have the same amount of time to work, socialize, and care for their families as they did twenty years ago.
What’s changed is that they can now be much more choosy about what they eat in their spare time.
As a result, audience engagement has never been more important.
In a video world increasingly dominated by companies like Netflix, Amazon, Google, and Facebook, each with ever-increasing content and technological expenditures, it’s become critical for the smaller media companies to develop new ways to boost engagement and brand stickiness.
In the following paragraphs, we’ll share some key OTT metrics that we’ve learned from working on the front lines of the media and OTT industry for the past few years.
#1 Building Measurable User Engagement Models
Gary Vaynerchuck, Chairman of VaynerX summed up our first pointer in OTT metrics in the following quote:
“To get customers, you need to go from the heart to the brain to the wallet.
Knowing your audience is where it all begins.
What motivates their watching habits?
How do they interact with your product?
What aspects of their personality, hobbies, decision-making process, and a thousand other characteristics can be researched and used to design a user experience that only they can see?
As a key decision maker in a media company, your major pain point has to be this.
Content producers and supply chain personnel can only begin their process once they have clear data about OTT viewership in the United States.
Our statistics friends at Statista state that the share of subscription over-the-top (OTT) service users in the United States amounted to 55.3 percent in 2019, more than half the U.S. population.
This figure is expected to increase to 60.6 percent by 2023 after increasing incrementally over the coming years.
But, personalized data for an upcoming OTT platform or an OTT content distributor can only come from a solid analytics tool or a robust custom CRM.
Top media professionals risk committing the cardinal sin of UX and CX model guesswork – if you don’t have a custom viewership measuring tool.
Media companies will create a lukewarm “all-in-one” experience at best, which reaches everyone but speaks to no one. In the worst-case scenario, they are permanently turned off the streaming service/brand.
It’s a lose-lose situation in either case.
#2 Building Engagement Clusters
IBM did a study and found that eighty-one percent of respondents believe that brands do not cater to their specific demands.
The push for personalized experiences necessitates significant investment, and huge global market leaders like Netflix and Amazon are leading the charge.
Smaller media and OTT companies have no choice but to strive to keep up in order to stay competitive.
As a result of this trend, the industry has seen a surge of direct-to-consumer OTT services aimed at a certain demographic.
In the UK, DAZN caters to worldwide sports fans who are tired of paying hefty monthly pay-tv membership prices, while Britbox caters to English expats looking for a fix of Miss Marple while they are away from home.
These are two quite distinct cases, yet they have one thing in common.
They are designed with a specific target audience in mind.
Everything is fine-tuned to the demands of individual audience bases – from content selection to payment model to customer experience.
As a result, both services are gaining in popularity. No week goes by without DAZN announcing the acquisition of a fresh set of programming rights, and Britbox have just reached the half-million subscriber mark.
A lot to think about considering how media agencies or companies are looking for animation/marketing solutions providers.
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Kilowott enables media outlets, agencies and streaming partners to become independent when it comes to varied content or security solutions.
We aid OTT and media platforms with content creation, content protection, advanced data analytics solutions, cloud security solutions, personalized analytics, and OTT marketing strategies.
#3 Crafting a Customer Support Mechanism
Moving forward with our OTT metrics list, no stat is needed to understand how important customer engagement really is.
Customer service improves brand awareness, increases trust, and minimizes turnover. This is a no-brainer.
Beyond being a helpful help desk agent, there are other ways to demonstrate to a consumer how much you care as a service provider or as a brand.
Here are a few customer experience tips for media companies.
– Make unsubscribing as simple as possible. It just doesn’t always work out. It’s possible that it’s not the service provider’s fault; folks grow bored at times.
If they want to go, they should be allowed to do so immediately and without incident.
But only after providing them with a special deal.
– Keep in mind their birthdays. Simple, yet frequently forgotten.
Make sure there is a mechanism that can collect personal information from users as part of the sign-up process.
This information can be used to create personalized audience-based marketing campaigns with discounts or tailored promotions.
– Giving without expecting anything in return. The data collected can be optimized further to strengthen promotional efforts around the most loyal clients.
Giving the most valuable readers a free month is a short-term loss, but a long-term gain will make a big difference.
#4 Build a Resource To Broadcast Live Events
Throughout the year, there are a number of landmark events that are sure to generate some hype – we call them ‘cultural temples.’
The Oscars, Super Bowl, Emmys, and Golden Globe award ceremonies, as well as blockbuster movie or web series releases, are all part of the entertainment industry.
World Cups, Olympics, and (choose your sport) finals are all part of sport.
These are fantastic opportunities for any media company’s marketing and content scheduling teams to collaborate and create promotional campaigns.
The objective is to take advantage of the interest in these fixtures to drive interaction with your OTT service or platform.
Assume a highly anticipated sequel to a Marvel film is about to be launched in theaters.
It’s getting a lot of news, and statistics from your business (which also needs a separate solution) seems to indicate that movie sequels in a niche service are seeing an increase in demand as a result.
We suggest building a separate tab within the platform’s UX where consumers interested in such events can be targeted towards.
This also works in the reverse direction. Assume you have a cause to rapidly remove or hide content starring a well-known actor or actress from your service owing to a “real-world” event, such as if they were convicted of a crime.
A robust OTT provider must be able to act immediately to dispel any bad associations that a user may have with their service.
#5 Create a Personalized Brand Voice
By 2022, brands who don’t have a voice (or worse, try to replicate the voice of a competitor) are doomed.
A media company’s personality is reflected in its service and social media platforms, which influences purchasing decisions.
Take, for example, Netflix.
Reading Twitter comments from service users makes it seem as if the OTT platform is a friend, a place to come home to after a long day at work and, dare we say, relax.
Many other streaming services’ social interactions are similar to a customer service hotline — accurate, instructive, but, generally, a little dry.
Netflix stands out because of its own personality, which can be found across all of its social media outlets.
A cheerful personality won’t make up for a lack of intriguing content, but it will give the company a layer of gravitas that will help them form deeper connections with their audience.
Leveraging social media as part of a media or OTT company’s marketing strategy can help them stand out amongst a sea of competitors. Finding a solution provider for content delivery is even harder.
#6 Measure How Ads Perform
Advertising is a complex subject.
On one hand, ad-blockers have been installed by 38 percent of US internet adult users, and this appears like an upward trend.
Digital ad revenues, on the other hand, were predicted to surpass $100 billion for the first time by 2018.
Ads on OTT platforms must do the following,
– Their existence should have as little impact as possible on the viewing experience
– They should be tailored to the preferences of the person who is viewing them
– They should not be subjected to extended load times (which is, incidentally, one of the primary reasons why people download an ad blocker)
This tendency has put pressure on OTT video operators, who rely totally or partially on ad income to sustain their business.
What if there is a OTT solution provider who can help media companies create animated content, provide secure cloud offerings, and build an ad measurement or ad personalization tool to satisfy the above 3 objectives?
For example, we at Kilowott can build a strong UI interface that can let OTT operators sell premium ad placements to companies who want their ads shown to a specific audience.
This can be non-intrusive and yet, highly effective.
SVOD providers who rely solely on ads to fuel their platform’s revenue can show ads on a single or two content rails for limited periods.
Think about it!!!
#7 Storytelling Through Animation
Storytelling has been a part of what makes us human since the start of time.
Whether it’s a tale of love triumphing over fear, or an underdog triumphing over adversity, our need for great stories has been constant throughout history.
There is no scarcity of premium content to entertain the people in the twenty-first century, nor of platforms from which to consume it.
Each of us has a portal to the content we wish to watch on our phones, and most modern houses have a device in front of which families assemble to consume programmes.
And viewers have taken full advantage of this reality, with streaming TV usage more than doubling in the last year.
Operators and brands who take advantage of their one-of-a-kind capacity to communicate excellent tales in forms that fit a user’s schedule are likely to earn market share.
There are a plethora of ways to deliver material beyond the title asset itself – short, bite-size clips, articles, photo galleries, text articles, highlights, recaps, interviews, and documentaries, to name a few – and supplying viewers with the correct information is crucial.
But, few can beat animated content.
Kilowott understands this.
#8 Analytics for OTT
Measuring the impact of recommendations is crucial for determining what works and what doesn’t in terms of consumption, conversions, and ARPU (Avg Revenue Per User).
It is not sufficient to merely measure the content; it is also necessary to assess the impact on packaging, promotions, and advertising.
It’s the razor-sharp, actionable information that may help you fine-tune your offers, upsell opportunities, and promotions.
Additional pointers are necessary because one idea is insufficient.
Based on the cumulative effect of tailored suggestions, VO’s TV Business Analytics, for example, shows how a single recommendation can develop into numerous engagement activities.
More unexpected trends in a viewing population can also be discovered using these analytics. These trends can be analyzed to determine who is at danger of churning and what actions should be done to re-engage these viewers.
Other factors, such as national events or even the weather, can influence contextual recommendations. Is it the first day of summer vacation?
“It’s time to watch a vacation or action movie. Is there a storm brewing?”
Furthermore, in order to properly personalize the viewing experience, OTT and TV service providers should strive to develop close relationships with their customers in order to gather feedback on their usage and learn what difficulties they can assist them with.
Analysis of what viewers are looking for, as well as responses to customer service issues, can all be utilized to aid decision-making.
When paired with data analytics, this additional information creates a complete picture that can fully tailor the viewing experience.
#9 Harnessing The Power of Social Media
Furthermore, in order to properly personalize the viewing experience, OTT and TV service providers should strive to develop close relationships with their customers in order to gather feedback on their usage and learn what difficulties they can assist them with.
Analysis of what viewers are looking for, as well as responses to customer service issues, can all be utilized to aid decision-making.
When paired with data analytics, this additional information creates a complete picture that can fully tailor the viewing experience.
Social media platforms have replaced text messages, but the goal remains the same: to allow viewers to connect in real time and receive immediate reaction, hence increasing engagement.
Behind-the-scenes information, such as deleted sequences, forthcoming events, and cast and crew commentary, can all be shared on social media.
This gives you another way to provide delicious tidbits of information that aren’t available in the core product. It’s important to remember that social media is not a one-way highway; it’s a terrific tool to get public input and opinions.
On some shows, cast members actively participate in the conversation by like and retweeting fan messages, and broadcasters urge them to do so (this can even be a carefully choreographed process).
While watching a show, fans have also historically hosted virtual watch parties and shared amusing memes and gifs, a trend that has continued in recent years.
Psst!
Done reading the article and still confused as to how to set up the above OTT metrics?
We’re here to help. Let’s hop on to a quick call to see how we can build a robust media operation-based solution or create animated content to get your content production rolling.
