Marketers can’t get left behind in the race to take advantage of the new streaming revolution
There is a fundamental shift in video content viewing going on in Australia and around the world.
“The demand for streaming TV globally is growing at a stunning rate,” says Bill Demas, CEO of Conviva, in the research company’s latest report released in early August. That showed the global demand for video content in the second quarter of 2018 more than doubled over the year before.
The Conviva report also reveals fewer people are using PCs to facilitate this streaming (24% of plays) and more are moving towards mobile devices (49% of plays), especially for short-form content.
US tech behemoth Cisco predicts that by 2020, 75% of mobile traffic will be video driven. That is an enormous amount of content being consumed, and a fundamental shift in viewing habits marketers and content creators can’t afford to ignore, especially given the continued decline of traditional TV viewing numbers.
Worryingly for marketers, a good proportion of this video will be consumed on platforms like Netflix, where there is currently no advertising. This means there has never been a better time for advertisers to use other channels to complement their media mix.
One new entrant that can offer this opportunity is Facebook Watch, a feature that launched locally in August, and one that provides a bespoke channel for all 16 million Australian Facebook users. Watch is a space to find videos spanning entertainment, sports and news. Additionally, it lets users catch up with creators and publishers they want to engage with by archiving video content.
Dan Sinfield, head of CPG at Facebook, said that the feature offers advertisers a brand new proposition.
“Facebook Watch provides a place for advertising that is viewed pretty much to completion, and indeed, passes the MRC standard, which is an ad viewable for two seconds or more. It is ideal for advertisers, who want messages to be communicated over a minimum of 15 seconds. So where there is a more complex product that needs a bit more explanation, this provides a suitable platform.”
Watch also allows publishers and creators to place ads within their content via an auto-insertion tool, or alternatively, Facebook will automatically select the best placement for ads in the videos. Unlike a standard ad break, in-stream (mid-roll) ads are inserted into a video after 60 seconds of viewing, when viewer engagement is heightened. They can run for up to 15 seconds and are non-skippable, with research demonstrating that, on average, 70% of in-stream ads on Facebook are viewed to completion.
It’s not just the creators and publishers who stand to benefit, Sinfield adds.
“For consumers, Watch is now a service within the Facebook app. It’s much more of a ‘destination’, so users go there to access a standalone video platform, and they can snack content when they’ve got a bit more time.
“Within Watch, there’s quite a lot of segments from longer programs like, for instance, The Late Late Show with James Corden – bite-sized stuff that can actually lead to being promotional material for even longer pieces of content.
The feature has arrived at an opportune moment. Increased engagement on mobile devices is unquestionably changing the way people are interacting with content, taking shows from a passive experience to a lean-in social experience shared with a like-minded community. This isn’t just about people on the go, it’s also penetrating lounge rooms.
This shift is also creating new live audiences for properties which have often struggled with traditional broadcast channels, like the World Surf League (WSL). This competition is entirely dependent on the waves rolling in for the action to begin.
But by utilising Facebook video the WSL reached more than 13.9 million people around the world in 2017, meaning surfing fans got to see the best of the action as it happened, creating a stronger support base for the challenger sports code.
Existing broadcast properties are also jumping on the opportunity to give their fans what they want. Channel 7’s House Rules built a community of more than 300,000 fans across the series on Facebook with unique and exclusive content the lynchpin. In the lead up to the grand final episode, a Facebook Live recap by the show’s judges attracted 127,000 views.
These examples show mobile video is not somewhere audiences are headed towards, they are already there, engaging in long-form content in different ways than they ever have before.
This means longer form advertising options which are viewed with sound on, in a native mobile environment. It’s a significant change to the status quo, Sinfield explained.
“Historically our newsfeed and stories have leant themselves to on-the-go video content – very short form content – and act as a reminder or branding message, or provide snacking content. What we’ve found with the growth of SVOD, is that there is a desire from users to consume longer form content – they’ve got more time, it’s a lean back experience, and we’ve filled that gap with Watch, so you’ve got a minimum of three minutes of content that people are watching.”
Facebook is also endeavouring to make it easier to find live videos so users can discuss the big, water cooler moments as they’re happening.
“We see Watch as being an eminently social feature. It gives users access to something that is current and allows them to have a conversation with their community about it. We are focusing on the sociability of that content,” Sinfield said.
CrossFit, for example, has benefitted from enlisting Facebook as its live digital home. Earlier this year, CrossFit Games announced its Open Workout 18.5 live on Facebook Watch. During the broadcast, CrossFit asked its global community to vote in the comments section for the workout it wanted to do.
After nearly two hours of voting, the live social broadcast generated 316,395 comments, up from an average of 5361 live comments during the previous four open workout announcements. And over one million people tuned into the broadcast, twice the average of previous broadcasts, which netted an average of 493,000 viewers.