This is arguably the most competitive time in the world of short-form and long-from video content. We see traditional media companies — all the major networks and premium cable —
making their play. New entrants like Amazon, Netflix, and Crackle are capitalizing on connected, cross-screen consumers. Then we have leading digital-first brands such as Maker, Pop Sugar, Buzzfeed,
and Vice. These brands have studios at their disposal and are customizing content based on signals from social influencer networks. For publishers, native content is key for growth as brands continue
to spend time, resources, and energy on content beyond the 30-second spot. It’s on, across the board.
Who Pays For the Crown Jewels?
Despite this surge of quality
content, most sites are finding that they simply do not have the scale to achieve an acceptable return on investment. Within the syndication market, pricing pressures are prevalent as agencies seek
scale at a reduced price point.
But scale (ad sales or subscription) is the only way to make the type of revenue that’s necessary to justify production costs. Programmatic tools
enable the distribution journey to be explored and evaluated, but they don’t always help on price. It’s become clear that content is an active business strategy vs. a passive play, as it
once was with our focus on mere content adjacency as the measure of relevance.
What’s the solution? The answer isn’t simple, but one key will be redefining what we mean by
“quality content.” Currently, the digital industry equates “premium” with destination, not content quality. This is old school. There are aggregated audiences centered on
passion points throughout the digital media ecosystem that are as desirable (if not more so) than the limited impressions available on most “approved site lists.” This is where
programmatic tools can be helpful, by matching the metadata of content with environments most interested in the content, and thus delivering on contextual relevance.
It’s not clear
what the final outcome will be, but we definitely need to get more sophisticated in how we define quality, looking beyond placement to things like engagement metrics to determine how we price video
advertising in this evolving environment.
Who is Crowned King?
All things considered, while content is still king, let’s be honest: distribution is queen, and data
is the newly crowned prince. Video content providers cannot just syndicate content and hope the RTB programmatic world will value its product. Metadata is the key, as are parameters like
geo-location— allowing us to segment and model audiences and target our content distribution more strategically.
While media companies expect their content to be valued higher than UGC
is, there is often an inverse correlation between the quality of a particular piece of content and the amount of data associated with it. For example, quality, professional short-form and long-form
videos are notorious for having valuable pieces of information missing from the data stream — unlike your favorite cat video, which is universally bagged and tagged appropriately! If premium
content providers are going to get the most out of programmatic tools, they must embrace the notion that data helps one achieve a higher CPM. Content isn’t just premium because we say so. It
must be categorized as such, allowing publishers to use it as an effective tool to engage their audiences
Media companies must have a clear point of view on how their content is priced and
placed — and ultimately have the power to control price because they own the content. Publishers need to decide what they really want. The mix of TV quality content, UGC and native content can
be overwhelming, but publishers need to actively manage and continually optimize this mix.
If you’re a premium content provider, then this is your time to shine. Go out and stake a claim
on what’s rightfully yours. Embrace the technology tools meant to ensure that your product is priced appropriately and delivered to an audience that wants to consume the product
Ultimately, for both the supply and demand side, it will come down to partnering with companies that help demystify the gray space: assisting richly creative, cross-screen advertising at scale,
and targeting through skillful data-driven audience models, with measurement in place.