Over-the-top viewing of CNN “is blowing up in terms of consumption,” while video on demand is providing a big boost to Turner’s entertainment business. The latter provides a venue for commercial viewing via dynamic ad insertion beyond the C7 ratings window, according to Nick Johnson, SVP of Digital Media Strategy at Turner.
As consumers migrate to OTT channels, “We’re finding that engagement is very high. They spend a lot of time with our brand in that OTT environment,” Johnson says during a break at the 2017 Digital Content NewFronts.
“When we look at our entertainment business, we see a significant amount of consumption that’s happening in the VOD environment.”
Considering that Turner is in more than 50 million homes capable of viewing ads delivered dynamically, “as we approach the UpFront we talk about C3’s and C7’s. We’re looking at an environment where after the C7 window we can bring addressability into a video-on-demand environment through the set-top box,” Johnson says.
From a conventional advertising perspective, Turner is always looking for new ad units to take advantage of its scale. “We have to evolve conventional advertising to be more impactful to consumers and deliver stronger brand messages,” he adds.
The goal is to tell great stories that are contemplating brands’ KPI’s and then distributing them on company sites and off-channel through its social agency and “bringing data along for the story.”
Johnson would like to see more of a balance across the entire menu of digital advertising options because over the last five years, he believes much conversation has dwelled on full-episode players and straight video.
While video is part of the mix, so are branded content, targeting, native advertising, social channels and conventional digital ads. All of them may “have been underweighted over the last couple of years.”
This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the IAB’s Digital Content NewFronts 2017. The series is sponsored by the IAB. For more videos from the #NewFronts, please visit this page.
