When local television station group owner TEGNA launched Premion in 2016 for one-stop OTT advertising, it didn’t know just how quickly local advertisers would take to OTT and connected-TV. “The point is that local caught on really fast,” says Premion President Jim Wilson.
“We wanted to make sure that there was an opportunity to bring them a new product, knowing that the market would be shifting, that streaming services were on the rise and how do we play a role for that with local advertisers,” Wilson explains in this interview with Beet.TV.
“We set out to build a platform for them, for our local advertisers, to give them access to major brands running on streaming services, connected televisions or other OTT platforms.”
Premion’s advertising platform gives regional and local advertisers access to more than 125 content providers sourced through direct partnerships. It delivers non-skippable ads in content on Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast and others.
“Everyone thinks about their viewing habits and realizes that they’re constructing a video strategy and there’s going to be a linear side of it and there’s going to be a streaming services side of it,” says Wilson.
In addition to uptake from local car dealers, hospitals, educational institutions and lotteries, “national agencies realized that as they were looking to reach local through tier two, that our platform was a great opportunity for them to reach local audiences.”
If a national fast-food, furniture or auto marketer wants to deliver different messages into 150 markets, Premion can deliver it, according to Wilson.
“National agencies really became big clients of ours, but we balance that out really well with all of our local clients,” which he describes as sophisticated and focused on the business of outcomes.
“They in some ways became much more challenging in terms of building solutions, which is incredibly exciting for us and has helped us in our national business.”
This video is part of a series about the emergence of OTT as an advertising platform. For more interviews, please visit this page. This series is presented by Premion.
