How OTT (Over-The-Top) can benefit casino advertisers
There’s no doubt that 2020 has arrived with new advertising and marketing trends that will carry us into the next decade. The last decade has seen a shift in how we consume television as the consumer has taken control of how they consume video content. There are rumors in the industry that TV as we know it, could be dying, but these may be a bit exaggerated. Most likely it will not go away, it will just evolve.
Television today is still one of the most viewed forms of media and is evolving into digital media as well. Consumers still spend an average of over four hours per day watching TV. In the past, this represented the lion’s share of time spent with media, but within the last two years, digital has overtaken TV. Digital now represents a total of over five hours per day.
While hours spent with each medium are very high, most of that time is simultaneous usage as users are doing both at the same time. As consumer usage combines the two, the same is happening on the content side as OTT/Connected TV blends both traditional TV with digital media. And while this can be overwhelming, it offers casino advertisers many benefits as they can utilize this media mix to better reach their current and future players.
What is OTT/Connected TV?
OTT stands for Over-The-Top and represents any TV content that is viewed over/via an Internet connection.
According to Nielsen’s Q2 2019 Total Audience Report, adults 18+ spent around 28 hours weekly consuming video. This usage includes Live TV + Time-shifted TV, as well as TV-connected devices (DVD, Game Console and Internet Connected Device, which would include Smart TV app usage). App/Web on a Smartphone/Tablet reported a weekly time spent of 30 hours and 52 minutes.
And while this represents a strong amount of time spent with video, of the $70 billion spent annually in the U.S. on television advertising, less than 5% is spent on OTT. National advertisers are slower to accept the new media avenue as it is difficult to obtain mass reach. However, consumers are embracing it, which will draw more advertisers to it in order to take advantage of the time and attention that consumers are giving to OTT.
Source: The Harris Poll and OpenX nationwide study looking at consumer behavior around OTT video.
Benefits of OTT to Casino Advertisers
As national advertisers are slower to accept OTT, the medium is prime and ready for most casino advertisers. Unless your casino seeks national reach, OTT can provide a very strong complement to local and regional TV advertising, and provides a number of benefits to local advertisers.
From a reach perspective, unlike TV, OTT is not held to delivering to the full DMA (Designed Market Area) and offers a lower out-of-pocket cost for advertisers. OTT can be purchased on a state, county or zip-code level, which can be ideal for increasing overall reach or narrowing to heavy up in one local area. Ads can run using either 15 or 30-second messages, which can be purchased at different weights or frequency per area.
If looking to hone in on a particular area to build frequency and/or generate leads, OTT offers the ability to reach a casino’s current database/players exclusively. This provides the ability to use video to reach core players and drive a particular behavior. Whether you look to reach VIPs, certain club members or inactives, OTT can deliver a unique message just to this audience to drive them back into the casino for an additional trip or increase their level of play.
With OTT, casinos have a unique advantage by being able to leverage their player database and use Addressable Geo-Fencing and IP Targeting. By leveraging their player database, casinos can increase trips, hotel stays, Theo and ADT, ticket sales … there really are no limits to leveraging your player database.
Now is the time to utilize OTT to your advantage to not only increase your overall TV reach, but to also leverage your player database digitally. The options are endless to help drive ROI in 2020.
OTT/Connected TV is just one of the many trends growing in the next decade. With the advancement of interactive content, social media, SEO tracking, streaming radio and yes, even digital print, we will continue to explore and inform on advertising and marketing trends for Tribal gaming.
