How can brands and consumers each “find their way” in the increasingly fragmented television viewing landscape? A new report from MAGNA Media Trials and Roku seeks to shed light on viewers’ mood, motivation, pain points and “journey to content” — as well as what this new landscape means for linear television and advertisers.
The report, “From ‘Power On’ to ‘Power Off’: Understanding the Streaming TV Experience,” uncovers consumer behaviors when it comes to digital and online viewing by consumers.
Jordan Rost, Head of Ad Marketing at Roku, comments, “Streamers are seeking ways to reduce friction and enhance content discovery during their browsing journey, and
brands that help address these needs have a real opportunity to drive awareness and action at key moments.”
With the American viewer tilting more toward free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels, advertising-driven video-on-demand (AVOD) and over-the-top giants such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, how can broadcast TV find their way into the crowded streaming universe? And, how can they attract advertisers?
GROWTH PLAN
IPG Mediabrands’ MAGNA media intelligence and investment unit predicts ad sales for premium long-form streaming (Connected TV, AVOD, FAST) is expected to grow by 13% in
2024 and will reach the $10 billion milestone. As previously reported by RBR+TVBR, this represents 22% of total national TV.
“With this growth on the horizon, brands have an opportunity to tap into the report’s insights to breakthrough the crowded TV streaming space,” MAGNA and Roku note.
The report showed that 3 in 4 streamers face challenges when choosing content, and fragmentation across TV streaming platforms has added to the complexity of their journey.
How can brands “action” along the consumer streaming journey?
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Advertisers can drive awareness and action by reducing friction in key moments
throughout the streamer’s journey.
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Given that browsing is a common behavior among streamers, brands can leverage the
interface as an additional touchpoint to reach streamers beyond the content itself.
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The start of the streaming journey is prime time for ads. This means pre-viewing ads
are a premium – pre-roll ads (61%) and homepage ads (48%) garnered higher
receptivity compared to product placement (37%) within content.
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Use ad formats that assist with content discovery to reach streamers and help guide
them to the content they love, especially when interested in younger demographics,
because streamers are more likely to discover new content through a streaming
service’s homepage (2.8x) or a trending playlist (3.8x) than from a word-of-mouth
recommendation.
Kara Manatt, EVP of Intelligence Solutions at MAGNA, commented, “This study looks at TV streaming fragmentation from multiple angles, and it puts forward insights that could help both advertisers and streaming platforms set strategic direction and engage more effectively with viewers.”
Among the key findings, by topic, from the report:
Mood and Motivations
Streamers are feeling good when they tune in: 73% of respondents started the
journey in a positive mood.
Happy streamers are good news for marketers because they are more receptive to
ads: 54% of participants were very or somewhat open to seeing ads while in this
positive mood, as compared to 35% receptivity by those who reported a negative mood.
Interestingly, both news (82%) and sports (82%) were streamers go-to content
types when in a positive mood: Both content types were above the index average of
75%.
Browsing and the Streamer’s Journey
The Streamer’s Journey Starts with exploration: 44% of streamers browse before
selecting what to watch, even though half of these content browsers already knew what
they wanted to watch, indicating browsing could be an engrained behavior for streamers.
Browsing is a multigenerational behavior, Gen Z (48%), Millennials (49%), Gen Z
(41%), and Boomers (40%), with Gen-Z spending the most time (30% spent 10-minutes
or more browsing)
Luckily, streamers are a persistent bunch: 45% of participants indicated they were
willing to explore more options, and 42% were satisfied to watch something else, if they
couldn’t find or access the content they wanted.
