Impact of Advertising in the Age of Streaming

As more people have cancelled their cable subscriptions, opting instead to watch their favorite shows on streaming services, advertisers have had to rethink how they reach their customers. With the growing popularity of ad-supported streaming services amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, big brands have to think about how to best spend their budgets and how to tweak their messaging to address the rapidly changing environment.

Unlike with digital music, many movies and TV shows have exclusive deals with a particular streaming service, forcing the various distributors to bid up for the rights to the content that’s most desired. To make money from streaming viewers, those companies have to either charge monthly subscriptions or provide ad-supported content.

“Every survey We have seen in the industry shows that consumers hate ads”.

“But consumers hate spending money out of their own pocket more than they hate ads”.

So when the option comes up, a lot of people will opt for the ad-supported versions.The problem is that the ad experience on streaming is still subpar, with consumers bemoaning how frequently they see the same ad. Once you have had a taste of Netflix, it’s difficult to go back to watching content with a high number of ads, in television.

Yet I don’t think anyone is saying that the ad-funded world of television is going away, it does have to change. An increasingly pressing question is also around how do marketers best deliver commercial messages to consumers on this new playing field?

However, we have entered a new world of data-driven, addressable, accountable and increasingly automated television, and brands are under pressure to create more individualised experiences that can tap into the targeting and personalisation capabilities available with these new platforms.