What is OTT & How Can I Market My Business On It?

What is Over the Top (OTT)? OTT is a term used to describe internet-based services that allow users to stream media content over the internet without the need for cable or satellite subscriptions. In other words, streaming services.  In the United States alone, 69.8 million homes use OTT services  (Comscore) with the most popular services in the market being platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. These platforms are non-ad supported, while other popular platforms such as Pluto TV, fuboTV, IMDbTV and Tubi are ad supported and becoming more and more popular.  Advertising on these platforms is becoming a crucial part of business’ marketing plans. Targeting users of these platforms can be very specific.

Behavioral targeting, also known as intent-based targeting, relies on users’ online behavior and search history to find the best prospects to reach. We can target those users, then use a strategy called cross-device matching, which allows us to show ads to those users on their OTT devices.  This targeting tactic is good for advertisers who want to reach prospects whose online behavior indicates an interest in their products or services. A health store, for example, might like to target people who are researching weight loss or lower cholesterol.

Age, gender, and marital status are a few of the many demographics we can use in order to target users. But we can also do a much deeper dive. With information gathered from concrete data sources like household census, warranty registrations, questionnaires, credit bureau records and purchase history, we can precisely target users based on that data. A person whose credit history indicates that they buy a new car every five years might be placed in the “likely to buy a car” demographic. If they always buy a JEEP, they could be placed in the “likely to buy a JEEP” demographic.  A virtual border is placed around physical addresses, and devices are potentially ‘pinged’ and our cross-device matching strategy takes effect.

Another way to use demographic targeting is to target businesses where your potential prospects are likely to be. For example, if you are a veterinarian, not only can we target dog owners, but we can also draw that virtual border around grooming businesses or dog kennels and potentially ‘ping’ those users.

Demographic targeting is a great tool for advertisers who want to reach a particular age, gender, income, or lifestyle. It is good for advertisers who want to reach clients early in the purchase cycle, or who maybe just want to spark an interest in their products or services.

Addressable geofencing is highly precise. It starts with a list of addresses, either a provided list by a business or a list we can provide for you (see Demographic Targeting). We then use our virtual fence technology to build fences around those addresses. As with other forms of targeting, we look at the mobile devices at these locations and then use our cross-device matching strategy to match all the other devices associated with that address.

All the video creative for these types of targeting is served on both large and small screens.