All major publishers today have large sales teams that sell owned and operated (O&O) digital properties to advertisers, and often the most lucrative offering in their arsenal is digital video.
Unfortunately, top publishers don’t typically have as much digital video supply as their advertisers demand, so they end up turning away deals or restricting their potential in some way.
In
“audience extension,” publishers use a third-party platform to retarget users they’ve seen (or cookied) on their O&O sites to find these users as they visit other sites on the
web. Audience extension has been thoroughly explored in the digital display world. Digital video, however, is decidedly different, and the opportunity for publishers to leverage a third-party
platform for video is even more compelling and valuable than it is in display.
Beyond retargeting, the key benefits for giving a publisher’s sales teams access to additional video
inventory are: 1) GRP/audience based buying; 2) contextual/bundle based buying; and 3) greater access to mobile and connected TV inventory. Essentially, not only can a publisher’s sales team
extend their audiences, the relationship may also enable them to sell an expanded suite of products.
Below are some hypothetical examples of these key benefits:
Retargeting
– Major digital news publisher
A major digital news publisher does not have enough digital video inventory across its sites to satisfy a request from a financial advertiser
looking to show video ads to an audience of financially savvy decision makers. Instead of simply accepting a smaller deal size or selling alternatives like Web display or mobile display, the publisher
could partner with a video platform to retarget its site visitors wherever they are watching video content elsewhere on the web, thus easily meeting the advertiser request and resulting in a bigger
deal. Today’s video platforms provide the ability to execute this scenario quickly and at scale, on brand-safe sites and with zero data leakage.
Audiences & GRPs/TRPs –
Media company
A major media company may have a CPG advertiser that only wants to pay for video impressions to males 25-54, as verified by comScore’s Verified Campaign Essentials
(buying on an audience guaranteed basis is becoming a more common request from advertisers now that they have the ability to plan cross-platform). If the media company takes the deal and runs the
video campaign exclusively on its O&O properties, they will likely show a large number of impressions to visitors outside the advertiser’s target demographic, and as a result, may have
a difficult time accepting a substantial budget. By partnering with a video platform, the media company could drastically extend its video reach for the male 25-54 target. Also, the media
company would thus be better positioned to offer their advertisers the ability to purchase video inventory based on GRPs (gross rating points) or TRP (target rating points).
Contextual/Bundles – Entertainment content company
An entertainment content company has lots of digital video inventory on its O&O properties, but one of its large
automotive advertisers might want to deliver a campaign on a mix of business news sites in addition to music and entertainment sites. Working with a video platform would enable the entertainment
company to sell bundles of “like” brand-name music and entertainment properties to its automotive advertiser, in addition to offering the advertiser a “business news bundle” of
brand-name sites or any other contextual-based bundle desired.
Mobile and Connected TV – Sports-related programming company
A sports-related programming company is
at the forefront of multiscreen advertising, so one of its movie studio advertisers might suggest running a massive 3-day movie promotion to sports enthusiasts who are viewing video content on PCs,
smartphones, tablets and connected TVs. The sports programming company may not have the mobile video or connected TV inventory needed to fulfill the largest possible deal, but could bolster its supply
by partnering with a video platform.
Introducing “Product Extension”
Since retargeting or “audience extension” is only one of the benefits
that a publisher can gain through a partnership with a video platform, “product extension” may be a better term to describe the opportunity. Two important caveats to all aspects of
video product extension are: 1) the publisher’s sales force needs to be educated on this enhanced offering and feel comfortable about selling it; and 2) the publisher needs to work with a
qualified video platform that provides them with scale across premium, brand-safe and transparent inventory.
Forward-thinking publishers who use video product extension will expand and solidify
their relationships with advertisers, open up new revenue streams, and have an advantage over competitors in a market that is becoming increasingly digital.