OTT Is Crucial in the 2020 Election Cycle
Tags: Digital Campaigns, Digital Advocacy, Political Advertising, Public Affairs Technology, Public Affairs

If your campaign isn’t already using OTT, chances are you’re behind the competition. OTT platforms offer a wealth of opportunity to reach consumers in an impactful, cost-effective way. The current shelter-in-place orders have caused OTT usage to trend even further upward. Here’s what you need to know to get up to speed.

The Way We Advertise is Changing

Consumers are abandoning their cable providers in favor of streaming services like Roku, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video. It’s predicted 82% of all American households will use these platforms in the next three years.

As we saw in the primaries, political advertisers are migrating their ad budgets to OTT. It’s the smartest move they could make, especially during the general election.

OTT advertising wasn’t the norm even two years ago. Now, OTT surpasses linear TV and other traditional advertising methods in reach alone.

Plain and simple, OTT is growing quickly in popularity and doesn’t show signs of slowing down. There are more than 200 million active users using OTT platforms. According to a recent study by Roku, shelter-in-place orders have caused a massive spike in OTT use. OTT hours have increased 43% since January 2020, with the largest jump happening the week of March 15th. Comparatively, linear TV saw only a 15% spike over that same period.

This is indicative of a larger trend. More households are moving from cable or satellite TV altogether, in favor of OTT platforms. These “cord cutters” continue to grow in number. In the past eight years, the number of US households abandoning their cable has grown 48%. It’s projected that by 2023, 44% of households will have cut the cord.

What’s more impressive than OTT’s reach is how effectively it reaches these audiences.

OTT Outranks Linear TV in Performance

Controls have been put in place to make OTT more powerful and dynamic than any linear TV campaign. The ability to reach granular audience segments and tailor the messages served is a game-changer, particularly in this election year.

OTT ads have a proven engagement rate of three times more and a retention rate that is nearly four times that of linear TV ads. Advertisers can be more strategic and budget-efficient with OTT. Ongoing developments also allow for OTT’s integration into an omnichannel approach that reaches audiences with precision across all platforms.

Precision Targeting. Linear TV casts a wide net that (hopefully) lands on the advertiser’s key audience based on age, location, and gender. But OTT allows advertisers to hyper-target key audiences. They can serve strategic ads to viewers by income, ethnicity, zip code and level of education. Recent developments are creating opportunities for advertisers to target viewers using first and third-party data, like voter files, coalition lists or proprietary models like our Atlas influencer targeting lists.

Linear TV casts a wide net that (hopefully) lands on the advertiser’s key audience based on age, location, and gender. But OTT allows advertisers to hyper-target key audiences. They can serve strategic ads to viewers by income, ethnicity, zip code and level of education. Recent developments are creating opportunities for advertisers to target viewers using first and third-party data, like voter files, coalition lists or proprietary models like our Atlas influencer targeting lists. Frequency Caps. Advertisers can cap the frequency of the OTT advertisements served to key audiences and on what platforms. This ensures no under- or over-exposure.

Advertisers can cap the frequency of the OTT advertisements served to key audiences and on what platforms. This ensures no under- or over-exposure. Versioning. OTT can show different messages to different audience segments. Politicians can serve issue-based ads to audiences who will be most receptive to them.

OTT isn’t one size fits all. But it’s the one tactic political campaigns must consider heading into November elections.

Reach out to review your campaign’s performance and learn how to take advantage of the possibilities OTT offers.

Controls have been put in place to make OTT more powerful and dynamic than any linear TV campaign. The ability to reach granular audience segments and tailor the messages served is a game-changer, particularly in this election year.

OTT ads have a proven engagement rate of three times more and a retention rate that is nearly four times that of linear TV ads. Advertisers can be more strategic and budget-efficient with OTT. Ongoing developments also allow for OTT’s integration into an omnichannel approach that reaches audiences with precision across all platforms.

Precision Targeting. Linear TV casts a wide net that (hopefully) lands on the advertiser’s key audience based on age, location, and gender. But OTT allows advertisers to hyper-target key audiences. They can serve strategic ads to viewers by income, ethnicity, zip code and level of education. Recent developments are creating opportunities for advertisers to target viewers using first and third-party data, like voter files, coalition lists or proprietary models like our Atlas influencer targeting lists.

Linear TV casts a wide net that (hopefully) lands on the advertiser’s key audience based on age, location, and gender. But OTT allows advertisers to hyper-target key audiences. They can serve strategic ads to viewers by income, ethnicity, zip code and level of education. Recent developments are creating opportunities for advertisers to target viewers using first and third-party data, like voter files, coalition lists or proprietary models like our Atlas influencer targeting lists. Frequency Caps. Advertisers can cap the frequency of the OTT advertisements served to key audiences and on what platforms. This ensures no under- or over-exposure.

Advertisers can cap the frequency of the OTT advertisements served to key audiences and on what platforms. This ensures no under- or over-exposure. Versioning. OTT can show different messages to different audience segments. Politicians can serve issue-based ads to audiences who will be most receptive to them.

OTT isn’t one size fits all. But it’s the one tactic political campaigns must consider heading into November elections.

Reach out to review your campaign’s performance and learn how to take advantage of the possibilities OTT offers.