TRENDING NORTH: SEPT ‘22
A monthly look at the marketing and advertising industry from NORTH’s point of view.
North is excited to welcome our new Channel Strategy Director, Landie Viljoen! Welcome, Landie!
A New Era of NFL Streaming
Landie Viljoen, Channel Strategy Director
The NFL has historically been a key destination for advertisers looking to reliably reach large audiences week after week. September 15th will launch a new era of NFL streaming with Amazon Prime Video’s first of 15 exclusive regular-season NFL games available to Amazon Prime subscribers and Twitch users.
For streaming platforms, exclusive content is key when it comes to gaining viewers. In the NFL’s first ever all-digital package, Amazon Prime Video acquired exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football, agreeing to pay about $1 billion a year. The viewership that these games attract and the advertising results they deliver could have implications for the sports industry for years to come. If Amazon proves successful at driving viewership during their 11-year deal, we can assume that the NFL will continue to expand to other streaming platforms, as well as capture the attention of other leagues who may want to tap into the potential of new streaming distribution options.
Amazon expects a dip in Thursday Night Football viewership with the move to a new platform, with about ¾ the average viewership who tuned into Thursday Night Football last season when it was aired on Fox Sports, the NFL Network, and Prime Video (12.5M estimated viewers compared to 16.4M last season). Amazon will try to distinguish the sports-streaming experience from watching on TV by adding interactive features that let users access real-time stats through its “XRay” feature, similar to the Amazon Prime Video feature that allows viewers to learn more about the cast in a movie or TV show. Although there will be a dip in viewership to start as users get accustomed to watching NFL games on Amazon’s properties, Amazon is not offering ad inventory at a discount and advertisers should expect to pay close to broadcast rates to reach this audience.
Netflix Will Soon Start Offering Ad-Supported Subscriptions
Landie Viljoen, Channel Strategy Director
Netflix will soon be entering the arena for advertiser dollars with an ad-supported subscription. The ad-supported tier will be the cheapest subscription option offered by Netflix at $7 — $9 per month in exchange for roughly 4 minutes of ads per hour, similar to other AVOD streaming platforms (and far lower than linear TV). Netflix’s ad-supported subscription is set to go live November 1st in multiple countries, including the US, Canada, UK, France and Germany. Ads will run as :15 and :30 video spots before and throughout some programming. Advertisers should expect to pay high CPMs to reach this highly sought after audience, with initial rates around $65 to reach 1,000 viewers and plans to eventually increase the CPM to $80, much higher than other AVOD streaming platforms currently on the market.
The Resurrection of Experiential Marketing
Landie Viljoen, Channel Strategy Director
Masks are coming off, streets are filling up, and more people feel comfortable returning to social life and gatherings in-person. And brands are re-starting to launch experiential activations to connect with consumers. For brands looking to connect with a Millennial audience, experiential marketing can capture their attention better than most forms of traditional media. The majority (78%) of Millennials prefer to spend their money on experiences and events rather than material items, and most Millennials (70%) experience anxiety about missing social events — especially if they know their friends will be there. Successful experiential activations are authentic, have an air of magic, and are photogenic and easily shared on social media by attendees. Recently, HBO got fans excited about the upcoming House of the Dragon launch by taking San Diego Comic-Con attendees into the Dragon’s Den. In New York City, Fancy Feast’s pop-up cat-themed Italian trattoria named “Gatto Bianco” got people to “eat like cats”. And Hulu launched an Only Murders In The Building gallery pop-up that allowed fans to explore the series through the walls of the Arconia as they discovered artistic installations with Easter eggs from the season.
Christmas in July
Madelyn Brennecke, Sr. Performance Marketing Manager
According to Pinterest Marketing Insights, you’re already behind in your holiday ad campaigns. Pinterest is one of my favorite advertising platforms, because it is the only one that is truly future focused. While users are posting photos on Instagram from their past weekend or sharing funny stories on TikTok, Pinterest lives in the future, where users are finding inspiration and planning for upcoming events and purchases. Because of its widely used search feature, Pinterest can accurately track social trends, like when users start to think about decorating for the holidays or what on earth they should get for their father-in-law this year. Pinterest’s insights show that Holiday inspiration and planning starts as early as July, as users look for ideas and plan out their purchases ahead of major sales events like Fourth of July, Labor Day, Prime Day and Black Friday. Pinterest reports, “Brands on Pinterest see 5x more conversions when people are exposed to their ads earlier in the season, compared to brands who wait to advertise later on.” This is because the planning starts way earlier than the celebrating. Furthermore, brands should be thinking about micro-moments when it comes to creative. Users are searching for specific moments (like ugly sweater parties, cookie swaps, friendsgiving) as well as specific gifting ideas (like gifts for mom or white elephant gifts). Providing ads that answer each of these moments will lead to stronger engagement and overall sales.
Meta Reveals Insights into Video Distribution Algorithm
Madelyn Brennecke, Sr. Performance Marketing Manager
Despite user and brand push back on Reels, as discussed in last month’s article, Meta continues to push video content on both Facebook and Instagram. Last week, they released insights into what their algorithm is looking for when choosing to boost or reduce a video’s reach.
For all those tired of seeing 2 month old TikToks on Instagram, the first signal in Meta’s ranking equation, Originality, should help. By ranking Originality, Meta aims to amplify original creators and reduce reposted content. According to Meta, an original video will reflect the voice and values of the creator and consist of originally produced material. If repurposing content, your video needs to meaningfully enhance that content either with new information or humor. This first point is not a surprise, as Instagram’s Reels has been pushing back on reposted TikToks for a while. Furthermore, many feeds simply repost memes and tweets from other areas of the internet. Instagram wants to truly compete with TikTok by being the first platform to air content rather than becoming a Tumblr blog page.
The second signal that Meta looks for is Capturing and Retaining Attention. Meta assesses watch and drop off rates, and rewards videos that have slower drop off rates and higher numbers of users watching the whole video, rather than videos with steep drop off rates early in the video, which may indicate that the video content isn’t what users were anticipating. Meta recommends focusing on storytelling as well as including baked in captions for users on the go. Unlike TikTok, Meta recommends improving production quality.
The next factor for video distribution is Loyalty and Intent, meaning having a fanbase of people who regularly come back to watch your videos, especially if users are actively searching out your content. A TikTok tactic that may be beneficial here is releasing a story in parts, ending the video with a “part two coming” or “I’ll post an update next week”. Furthermore, make sure your videos are optimized for Facebook search, including titles, descriptions and tags.
Lastly, Meta measures engagement on your videos. However, they are looking beyond basic comments, which are often paid for or bots. Instead they are looking for content that sparks conversation or meaningful interactions, especially those between friends. This could be discussions in the comment section, organic/earned shares, or gaining likes, comments, shares from “real people”. Meta will be reducing video distribution if it detects that videos have been artificially distributed, especially for compensation, for example if one page regularly reposts content from another that is not related to the theme of their page. Meta will also be dinging content that contains click or watch bait.
Thinking of Audio Advertising as More than Just Podcasts
Stephen Lawrence, Media Planner
A consistent thread through Trending North over the past year is unsurprisingly the discussion around podcasts and the audio advertising space. We all listen to podcasts and, as advertisers, know how exciting it is to see the potential growth opportunities the audio space gives to companies and brands that want to be in the most engaging places. However, one interesting opportunity that hasn’t been discussed much over the past few years is a much more common audio space — traditional radio. And the truth of the matter is that podcasts and radio do two completely different things for brands, with extremely effective performance. On one hand, podcasts give advertisers the opportunity to not only target a very niche, specific audience, but also allows the backend reporting and metrics that we all love to see (ie. is this ad providing sales? Are people more likely to remember my brand when a host is reading my ad?) However, radio offers something different — an opportunity to have a broad reach, with an also very specific audience. For example, we can all assume that someone listening to Oregon Public Radio is likely living in Oregon and interested in local issues. And with some stats saying that 82% of the US adult population is reached on a weekly basis via radio, it’s worth spending some time thinking of the audio space as a whole when media planning, and considering all options, both traditional and digital.
How TikTok is Helping to Sell Romance Novels
Stephen Lawrence, Media Planner
One of my favorite books of all time is Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston — the fictional love story between the First Son of the United States and the Prince of England. Truly an incredible and fun novel, filled with the traditional love story troupes mixed with queer love. However, one thing that sets this book apart from other typical romance novels is the cover — a bright pink wrapped book, with cartoon versions of the main characters looking willfully at each other. And if you’re a book lover, you’ll notice these types of book covers are everywhere, especially in the romance section. A big part of this transition has to do with the interest in romance novels from younger individuals, especially when a subgenre of TikTok like BookTok is formed. When a novel goes viral on TikTok (See Emily Henry’s Beach Read, or Madeline’s Miller’s Song of Achilles), sales for these authors go through the roof (with sales around 12.5 million in 2022 for “viral books”). So what does this mean for advertising? Well it means everything. It’s as simple as the old phrase “judging a book by its cover” — when we see a book cover (or if we generalize to ads), we look for simple things that tell us everything we need to know — a title, bright colors, and cartoon characters who are likely romantically involved. This is everything for readers to make them interested and purchase. It just needs to scream “fun romance!” As we think of advertising for brands, it’s important to think about how this way of engaging with media, especially among younger audiences, impacts how advertising will likely look in the future and the ways that we can utilize these trends to engage future audiences.
Streaming TV Takes the Largest Piece of TV Viewing
Stephen Lawrence, Media Planner
I recently went and spent time with my parents, and after we finished dinner, I was surprised that I found us sitting around the TV, scrolling through the TV stations to find something to watch. As a millennial, I have become so accustomed to pulling up Hulu or Netflix to watch tv, that I was taken aback that my parents are still utilizing a more traditional television experience. However, Nielsen came out with some insight in August that actually shows that July 2022 was one of the first times that streaming television claimed the biggest spot of TV viewership, beating our broadcast and cable television. In addition, “audiences watched an average of 190.9 billion minutes of streamed content per week — easily surpassing the 169.9 billion minutes that audiences watched during the pandemic lockdown period back in April 2020.” These numbers are still extremely surprising to me, especially as I talk to my friends who are all cord cutters and rarely watch anything that isn’t streamable. As our media behaviors slowly transition away from these traditional media avenues, and as non-ad supported media companies such as Netflix move to lower prices and ad-supported models, advertisers will need to keep an eye out for the ways that media dollars are being spent against all television avenues and optimizing as more viewers move to streaming-only services.
