Recently, we have concluded the third VlogBox Get-Together webinar, connecting experts in CTV, video production, marketing, and AI. We discussed the strategies that help vloggers, video content creators, advertisers, publishers, and other TV industry players create high-quality content, make audience targeting more efficient, and deepen user engagement. This webinar was led by our star panelists:
Anna McMichael
Director of Strategic Partnerships at VlogBox
J. Leonard
Vice President, Platform Operations at IRIS.TV
Oleksii Shaldenko
PH.D., CEO/ Co-Founder at Wantent
The participants discussed the value of viewer data in content creation, as well as the important topic of audience targeting and viewer engagement within the CTV environment.
Marketers, publishers, and content creators are watching all new trends closely to find out what new innovative tools can be used to determine how to improve audience engagement. These new tools and trends have broad implications for consumer behavior, and will force creators and publishers to reconsider how they engage customers emotionally.
As marketers further realize the importance of data, they are delving more into the CTV segment, and discovering that it offers better targeting, higher viewer engagement, and measurable outcomes.
What type of data will improve marketing in CTV?
We started our discussion by sharing insights from a leading expert who has a deep knowledge of ad-tech and programmatic advertising from all ends of the media ecosystem: C.J. Leonard. Leonard revealed the killer app of their own video data platform, IRIS.TV, which enables broadcasters and publishers to create better viewing experiences and advertising outcomes.
We asked C.J. about the data that can be useful in providing more effective audience targeting, and he brought up video-level contextual data.
“Studies by GumGum and Magna revealed that when video ads were played against contextually relevant content, there were significant increases in brand favorability, recommendation intent, and search intent. The key takeaway is that mood and mindset are important for video ad advertising, and context is a key influencer. But self-declared metadata like category and genre are not good enough, as you need greater precision. For example, if targeting “Comedy,” Pampers would have greater alignment with Elf than The Hangover, which may be more appropriate for FanDuel,” he noted.
As a result, Leonard pointed out that publishers who make their video-level data available for analysis like GumGum, Oracle, Comscore, and others, allow more granular assessments such as brand safety, suitability, and targeting for co-viewing.
What is the core of context in CTV?
In addition to the value of data, it is important to understand the value of context in the CTV area. We received valuable insights from webinar panelists on this question.
C.J.: ”Increased inventory value – more signal means more value. Advertisers are demanding more transparency in their media buying, similar to that of linear TV, where they get access to show, and episode data. Video-level contextual segmentation offers publishers greater ability to showcase the value of their most valuable first-party data – their content coinciding with trusted and verified data partners’ scoring.”
What drives better engagement towards content?
Here, we discussed different approaches implemented to increase user engagement towards created content. Along with video-level contextual data, we have asked IRIS.TV what work they provide to drive engagement.
Their video recommendation engine considers a few ways:
- Context Analysis (looking at the context of the show you are watching at the moment);
- User Analysis (your historical consumption history);
- Cohort Analysis (what other people like watching – time of a day, geo, device etc.) This approach is specifically helpful when dealing with the cold-start of new users.
C.J.: “Instead of creating one playlist or menu for millions of people, we create millions of playlists for millions of people. A counterintuitive example is that what people come to a site or app to watch isn’t always what gets them to stay. For example, we often see during sports seasons that when a viewer comes to see a baseball highlight in May, they often watch basketball playoff highlights instead of more baseball because of the timeliness of the moment. In the case of our algorithm, it would recommend the basketball highlight video instead of another baseball highlight because our data would show higher than usual engagement for the basketball clip.”
What AI-based solutions are becoming more valuable in promoting video content in the TV space?
The penetration of Artificial Intelligence into the digital world has brought plenty of new solutions and valuable tools to proceed in business, including the TV industry. However, when it comes to reaching new audiences and exploring their perceptions of the content they watch, AI-powered tools are handy to analyze viewer engagement, enhance the value of content, and generate solid revenue. The co-founder of Wantent, Oleksii, shared valuable insights on how to polish content and increase viewer engagement with the help of specifically integrated AI solutions.
There is a close connection between the content offered and how viewers feel about that content. That’s why it is essential to build an emotional connection and satisfy the viewer’s needs. Business metrics like acquisition, engagement, and retention are useful and need to be improved by studying the audience’s emotional reactions. The more positive emotions your content provokes in an audience, the more chances they will continue to engage and be interested in your product.
At the panel discussion, Oleksii also mentioned existing tools used to research audiences: marketing agencies, online surveys, focus groups, inhall tests, neuromarketing (helmets), and virtual screening rooms. But innovative data-driven solutions embedded in machine-learning algorithms allow content creators, as well as advertisers, to track viewer engagement and analyze their emotions while watching some given content. As a result, content creators can receive a general report on video metrics, audience feedback, and a gender breakdown which will provide them with a better understanding of their audience and help them boost their content quality by receiving recommendations for improvement.
Wantent is a global AI emotion recognition platform that helps content creators and marketers improve their targeting and their viewer engagement. Platforms like Wantent offer a range of benefits to allow creators to:
- Know their audience’s unfiltered response to your content or message;
- Improve audience engagement and increase retention;
- Optimize their spend to maximize ROI.
What tools and strategies are the best in channel promotion?
Here, panelists had a fruitful discussion on what the first steps of a marketing campaign should be considered when launching a media business, influencer agency, or CTV business. It is crucial to know what tools are used in improving the quality of video content, and what strategies can be implemented to make a business grow and prosper.
The speakers have gathered three relevant points for content creators to take into account:
- Provide marketing research (surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc.);
- Account for the importance of SEO, websites and email marketing to drive better brand awareness and viewer engagement;
- Explore new marketing channels to improve business and audience reach.
Along with specific platforms that help improve the quality of content, there are other platforms that can take a creator’s business to the next level. VlogBox is among them. With VlogBox, you will need to provide only valuable and engaging content. The VlogBox team will implement solid and proven strategies to promote a channel on CTV platforms, giving you a foot in the door with one of the fastest growing content mediums.
We hope you enjoyed our webinar and benefited from our helpful tips and insights. Stay tuned for new episodes of our Get-Together series to learn more from professionals’ best practices. If you want to rewatch the full version of the webinar, you can access it here.