10 Takeaway Thoughts from IAB Cross-Screen

Categories: View Points    ||    Posted on: June 14, 2013

Adap.tv was a supporting sponsor of the IAB’s Cross-Screen conference this week, which brought together brands, agencies, publishers and others for a full-day intensive on the challenges and opportunities of multi-screen video advertising.

While the marketplace of ideas showed striking differences in how television and video is shifting, the consensus was that we’re still in the beginning stages of all of these majors happening.

Here are 10 thoughts from various sources that give a good snapshot of some of what the leaders in TV and video are thinking:

1. The future of video means seamlessly enabling the viewing of content and managing, delivering and reporting of advertising across all screens.

2. Because different technologies need to be navigated across screens, the problem of lack of standardization persists.

3. Viewers use a 2nd screen ~40% of the time they watch linear TV (according to Twitter/Nielsen).

4. The use of the 2nd screen is changing viewer behavior, and helping to sustain live and appointment viewing in an increasingly on-demand environment.

5. While TV Everywhere is accelerating, less than 50% of pay TV subscribers have access to it because of contractual, political, and other differences amongst TV players. The lack of TV Everywhere adoption is mostly because of a lack of marketing and consumer education.

6. Discovery of on-demand content is a challenge; there is no digital ‘TV Guide’ consumers can use to efficiently find on-demand content.

7. There is a significant concern around developing audiences in an on demand world. TV broadcasters leverage hit shows to promote new shows, but that strategy doesn’t work with on demand.

8. Long form content is not necessarily better than short-form: AOL found that a pre-roll spot before a five-minute video has better ROI.

9. It is easier for Netflix to replicate HBO than HBO to replicate Netflix.

10.  TV ratings are decreasing and buyers are looking for options; some say the last 20% of their TV spend is better spent on digital video.

 

 

The TV Revolution Will Be Tablet-ized

Categories: Data Trends    ||    Posted on: June 11, 2013

For the first time, more than a third of American adults own a tablet, according to a new Pew Internet and American Life Project report out yesterday. This is up from just 3% of those surveyed in 2010.

Today’s tablets are a fairly new category of devices compared to other video-playing screens, yet over the three years of its life cycle it has grown exponentially:

While tablet adoption is growing across demographics, it is concentrated around adults in the late thirties/early forties, while smartphones continue to be most popular with the 18-34 set.

Clearly, there is a reason why nearly half of buyers have added mobile to their media plans for this year: More and more time is being spent on smaller, mobile screens. More specifically, tablets are the perfect complement to an entertainment system, large enough to offer the lean-back TV experience from living rooms of yore but small enough to be carried from room-to-room or watched while on the subway or bus.

In fact, tablets are becoming the go-to mobile device for watching television-style content. Couple that trend with the overall growth of the tablet market, and we can envision a future where television can truly go everywhere.

How The Future of TV and Video Will Unfold [Video]

Categories: International    ||    Posted on: June 4, 2013

Last month, more than 100 executives operating in online video and video advertising descended upon London for a half-day conference on the latest industry trends.

Here, executives from Sky, BBC Worldwide and VivaKi looked into the crystal ball and laid out how the future of TV and video would unfold amidst with all of the swirling market forces

Head here for more coverage of the Adapt Conference in London.

The Path To Premium Programmatic [Video]

Categories: International    ||    Posted on: June 4, 2013

Last month, more than 100 executives operating in online video and video advertising descended upon London for a half-day conference on the latest industry trends.

Here, executives from BBC, AMNET, and La Place Media debate the value of premium programmatic marketplaces, and discuss case studies around experimenting with programmatic video ad trading. The session was moderated by ExchangeWire’s Ciaran O’Kane.

Head here for more coverage of the Adapt Conference in London.

Common Language? Common Currency? [Video]

Categories: International    ||    Posted on: June 4, 2013

Last month, more than 100 executives operating in online video and video advertising descended upon London for a half-day conference on the latest industry trends.

Here, Adap.tv’s Vijay Rao chats with Nielsen, eBay, and RTÉ about one of the video industry’s biggest challenges: measurement. Is a common currency for TV and video measurement possible? How are buyers and sellers recalibrating the digital transaction in this new age of audience-based buying? Take a look:

Head here for more coverage of the Adapt Conference in London.

Adapt Conference London 2013: Gateway to Innovation [Video]

Categories: International    ||    Posted on: June 4, 2013

Last month, more than 100 executives operating in online video and video advertising descended upon London for a half-day conference on the latest industry trends.

Here, executives from Nielsen and Brainient discuss some of today’s best and brightest tools and technologies being built on the Adap.tv platform.

Head here for more coverage of the Adapt Conference in London.

Adap.tv Hits 200 Employees Worldwide!

Categories: Adap.tv News    ||    Posted on: June 3, 2013

Today we are so happy to share that we have hit another company milestone — 200 total employees across our global offices in San Mateo, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, London, India, and Australia!

While we don’t measure our success by the number of employees we hire, this still is a testament to some of the great things we have been able to accomplish and the truly exciting times that are still to come for our industry.

We also kicked off our largest new hire orientation session this morning, with 20 new employees getting valuable perspective from the company’s senior leadership:

Hiring the best and brightest people to help our clients and partners accomplish their business goals is one of our top priorities. We also want to continue to be a company people want to work for, and foster a culture that gives employees the freedom to pursue their own personal goals alongside those of the company’s.

If that sounds awesome, send us your résumé — we’re hiring!

5 Mary Meeker Charts Showing the Growth of the Web and Video

Categories: Data Trends    ||    Posted on: May 29, 2013

At Adap.tv, we have long believed that online video is a global opportunity, which is just one reason why we have been aggressively pushing out into more US and European markets, into Australia and India.

Today, KPCB’s Mary Meeker provided even more perspective on why we have only seen the tip of the iceberg for the global growth of the Web, and, and in turn, the growth of any media, including and especially video, delivered digitally.

In short: It’s called the “World Wide” Web for a reason, so let’s continue to think global.

Meeker’s annual “Internet Trends” report touched on a number of key themes, none more pronounced than how much emerging Web markets such as China and India are actually growing.

Take these numbers charting users who went online over the past five years, for example:

The US Web market only saw nominal growth over the past several years while the rest of the world saw an average of 15 percent year-over-year growth. China and India led the way, accounting for more than 50 percent of the Web user growth that has happened, according to the report. The more users that enter the market, the more likely that they will be looking for services such as social media and video, services which have already achieved a distinct level of maturity in the US and some European markets.

Highlighting this fact is that many of the largest Internet properties are “Made in USA” but more than 80 percent of their users are located outside of the US:

Most of these properties have very aggressive plans for video, making it very important to think global when looking at content acquisitions that can transcend borders.

All of this user growth means that more and more data is being created and shared across connected devices. In fact, we’ve now passed the two zettabyte threshold of data created and shared. (For those not up with -byte lingo, one zettabyte is a trillion gigabytes.)

While this is tremendous growth in data shared, it’s not surprising with worldwide broadband and cellular data services continuing to improve and larger, higher-quality videos being offered in services such as Netflix, Hulu, and other mobile applications.

The future of the Web and the “digitization” of television hinges on our ability and commitment to continuing to lay down and widen the pipes delivering data services to consumers around the world. Which is why the growth of Web users in emerging markets (205 percent growth in Iran!) is heartening.

So is the truly unbelievable growth of mobile usage, which now accounts for nearly 15 percent of global Internet traffic, according to Meeker’s report:

Clearly, smartphones and tablets are becoming a vital part of information sharing and consumption, and there is a consensus around the continued growth of these screens as more and more services such as television, social media, and near-field communication are developed for these platforms.

The report also indicates that iOS and Android devices have now crossed the 50 percent line in terms of global smartphone OS marketshare, a good indication that there is still room for total user growth.

Speaking of TV (something near and dear to our hearts), international users are more mature in utilizing multiple screens for accessing media, particularly in the high-growth China market:

The desktop PC is the go-to screen for media in China. Considering the growth of mobile in the country, we can certainly project it to become the second (or first) screen very soon, leaving the traditional TV to be the third screen. This is the complete opposite of screen time in the US, where the TV is still entrenched as the first screen, followed by the Web and then mobile.

There are a lot of other great insights you can read about in the full “Internet Trends 2013” report here. All of this just means that there is growth still to happen internationally, and that we should continue to plan for a Web that can truly reach across borders and cultures.

Publishers in 2013: Thoughts Become Words. Words Become Actions.

Categories: Data Trends    ||    Posted on: May 20, 2013

In the third and last part of our series, we’re taking what we’ve heard from advertisers and agencies and applying it to the other side of the bargaining table: publishers.

Publishers are truly on the front lines of television and online video, having to balance offering the best possible consumer viewing experience and content with the needs of advertiser and agency partners.

Here is what they think about video in 2013, what they are saying about it, and the actions they hope will be taken to move the industry forward:

Thoughts.  A common theme arose from our publisher survey data: TV is no longer thought of as just programming on a television screen. Content continues to drift into mobile, online, and other connect platforms. Consumers have shown that they want their content on many different screens, and as more video proliferates to those devices, publishers are thinking about combining ad sales opportunities and supporting it with better analytics across devices.

Words. It’s not surprising “video” and “content” is what publishers are talking about, nor is “mobile” which is where an increasing swathe of their viewers are accessing their content. This year has already seen a plethora activity to appease that consumer demand for video, with TV Everywhere deals coming in hard and fast over the past several months. The surrounding words in the cloud paint a picture that publishers are ready to take the next step and truly become multi-screen video powerhouses:

Actions. Publishers had a number of action-oriented insights for the coming year.

Their goal, as it has been for some time, is to bring TV budgets to the Web, and that may mean going away from the digital-TV silos that the buying community is now separated into. As the definition of TV continues to transform into billions of screens, there will just be an aggregate group of buyers, possibly transacting with terms and conditions closer to how TV is currently operated rather than “unreliable IAB standards,” as one publisher put it.

Publishers will also be under pressure to bring in more premium content (i.e. live and episodic video, linear cable and television programming, and more) as advertisers increase demand for paying against viewable impressions and completed views. Consumers have shown they are comfortable with an ad-supported experience, as long as the content they are viewing is good. As long as there is a commitment from publishers to grow and syndicate their video offering, they should be able to effectively market their content above the lower-grade online video fray.

Along with quality, publishers say that the length of videos will adapt to meet advertisers’ interest in audience video snacking behavior. “Advertisers will want shorter videos and they will offer shorter ads. They will want share of voice by time watched, instead of impressions,” predicted one publisher.

And, finally, another published observed, “Everything is going to go to private marketplaces and/or real-time bidding. The traditional ad network model is going to go by the wayside.”

For perspective from the other side, check out what agencies and advertisers had to say.  Or, download the full Adap.tv and Digiday State of The Video Industry report here.

10 Highlights from The Adapt Conference London

Categories: International    ||    Posted on: May 16, 2013

Yesterday, leaders helping to bring online video and television into the future came together in London to discuss the massive challenges and opportunities facing the industry.

The jam-packed Soho Hotel audience got to hear from companies like eBay, VivaKi, Nielsen and others on topics such as premium programmatic, measurement and currency, and they also got glimpses of technologies being built in Adap.tv’s platform. Here is just a sampling of some of the discussions that were happening on stage and online:

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