AVOD: An opportunity rich space for marketers

• In 2018, the revenue contribution of the Indian OTT market was $500 million, of which 82% was generated from Advertising video-on-demand alone.
• Increasing customer preference towards smartphones, along with platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, has opened up new pathways for marketers to reach their audiences, making AVOD to be a highly profitable environment.
• Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India further the opportunities and challenges that AVOD brings for the industry.

Over the Top (OTT) platforms have become an everyday part of the Indian consumers life, giving rise to Advertising video-on-demand, or AVOD, which is usage of these platforms for marketing through video-based content available on them. In 2018, the revenue contribution of the Indian OTT market was $500 million, of which 82% was generated from AVOD alone. This factual revelation led to the rise of AVOD as a marketing method for 21st century Indian audiences. Increasing customer preference towards smartphones, along with platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video has opened up new pathways for marketers to reach their audiences making AVOD to be a highly profitable environment.

However, AVOD is not without challenges:

• Skip Ad button - One of the biggest obstacles as it either appears almost immediately, or 5 seconds after, leaving marketers with only that time frame to make an impact on the viewer. In that short span, the ad must resonate with the viewer and make the viewer essentially ‘forget’ about that Skip Ad button.

• Decreasing attention span of consumers - The human brain is now said to take ½ second to see, recognise and react to mobile advertising and trigger a positive or negative reaction. A recently released study on cognition states that advertisements on mobile gain more attention and trigger stronger recognition as compared to desktop.
• Too many platforms to choose from - There is a widening array of OTT platforms to choose from, and to worsen the situation, a plethora of devices to access them on. The heavy dilution of media outlets in the Indian consumers universe seems challenging, but every dark cloud has a silver lining.
• Wrong place at the wrong time - Different OTT platforms serve different audiences, depending on which content is receiving the highest traction at any given point. Additionally, OTT platforms have a specific ‘image’ of providing specific content.
• The Top 3 coveted spots - A report by The Boston Consulting Group shows that Indian audiences prefer to keep only 3 video-content apps on their phones at any given time, leaving platforms in a cut-throat rivalry to hold a spot in the coveted top 3. Most Indian consumers also tend to uninstall these apps within a few days of their installation.

Putting your best foot forward:
Clever use of data obtained from tracking viewer habits can help marketers form the right mix of integrated marketing which will enable them to reach the consumer just enough times to generate the desired recall value, without overpowering their screens with too many advertisements. The availability of multiple touchpoints to reach the consumer can be a blessing or a curse for marketers, depending on how they use it.

Advertisements that blend with the content, or are similar in nature to the content being viewed by the consumer, are more likely to reach their desired audiences. They can also keep themselves updated with the latest viewership trends in order to identify opportunities and maximise their customer footprint. The Indian AVOD conditions are almost perfect and smart utilisation of all available resources can help marketers maximise their reach and audience pool in no time.

- By Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India