Video Trends Vlog Episode 5: On Content Delivery — Getting the content to the user
How you deliver content to the user can have big implications on quality of experience. How fast, and reliably, content is delivered is often a major factor in signal interruptions, latency issues, and buffering.
In episode 5 of our series, Peter Gibson, Executive Director of Product Management and Joe Mancini, Director of Product Development talk with Matt Smith, Executive Director of Business Development and Strategy discuss getting the content to the user, finding the best performance for your content, the value of the Comcast experience and infrastructure for delivery.
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Video Trends Vlog Episode 4: Content Monetization Strategies and Technologies
New features and greater interactivity add up to a richer experience for viewers – and stronger returns from your investments in content and technology. To maintain an operation that evolves with audiences, it’s important to stay centered on what experiences you want to provide to consumers – and how to make those experiences more relevant at the individual level. It’s not just about enabling content, but how to blend monetization approaches and merchandising to optimize the revenue potential of every program.
Join Matt Smith, Executive Director of Business Development and Strategy, Joe Mancini, Director of Product Development and Peter Gibson, Executive Director of Product Management as they talk about content management strategies and technologies that drive stronger profitability for multi-platform video commerce.
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Video Trends Vlog Episode 3: Go-To-Market Strategy
2019 is proving to be another huge year for the industry, as some of the biggest entertainment brands are poised to launch new streaming and on-demand destinations of their own. Where business models used to be split up more clearly between subscriber-based approaches (SVOD), ad-supported models (AVOD), or shopping-cart transactions (TVOD), businesses are pivoting to a hybrid approach with the flexibility to incorporate all three – with the power to shift based on viewer insights and consumer trends.
In this video, Peter Gibson, Executive Director of Product Management and Joe Mancini, Director of Product Development both share some insights on how to go to market with an advanced, cost-effective technology plan that helps companies reach revenue targets.
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Video Trends Vlog Episode 2: Getting Nerdy With SCTE 224
SCTE 224 – known affectionately as “Scuddy 224” – refers to an expanded Event Scheduling and Notification Interface (ESNI) standard that was launched in 2015 by the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE). Simply put, SCTE 224 was borne from the increased need for metadata to provide a deeper set of instructions on how and when a piece of content can be used.
SCTE 224 expands on previous standards, enabling content distribution based on attributes that are now critical to our mobile world, such as device type and geographic location. Audience-facing electronic programming guides (EPGs) are also created with this communication in order to set accurate expectations with viewers as to what’s going to be available and when.
Listen to Joe Mancini, Director of Product Development for Comcast Technology Solutions, explain why it’s so crucial to implement a way to manage the increasing complexity of linear rights across a complex sea of device types, delivery platforms, geographies, and legal requirements.
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Video Trends Vlog Episode 1: Live and VOD Trends
A consistently fresh blend of live and on-demand content puts businesses on a strong path to attract viewers and keep them engaged. We’re seeing a shift in the industry where more content is being served via terrestrial delivery, while still working to preserve a broadcast-quality experience – an experience that’s not just high-quality, but a consistently reliable one regardless of the viewer’s device type or location.
Join Matt Smith, Executive Director of Business Development and Strategy, as he sits down with Peter Gibson, Executive Director of Product Management and Joe Mancini, Director of Product Development in the first of a five-part series of short videos where they cover some of the biggest VOD trends and critical business challenges for the video industry.
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Metadata Makes Linear Video Exciting Again
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it helps to be in the right place at the right time to catch the right set of eyes. When your “right place at the right time” consists of diverse devices that are both mobile and global, well… it can get complicated.
I remember the first time I discovered the mobile web (Yes, this might be dating myself a bit). One of my colleagues walked over to my desk, opened my old-school feature flip phone, and said, “Check this out.” He clicked a few buttons, downloaded some ringtones and games, and browsed the web. It was truly a game-changing experience for me — kind of like entering the fourth dimension — and I realized that the mobile world would never be the same. Transition to our current world of video streaming and distribution, and it’s all about the video path — which is, in effect, all about data.
Linear streaming services and alternative video distribution paths continue to increase in both diversity and reach. So, where is the next-level growth catalyst for linear video going to come from over the next 10–15 years? What’s going to keep it attractive in the eyes of viewers? It’s all in the (meta)data. The metadata associated with video can power complex use cases, enable more intelligence and automation, and extend users’ video experience beyond their first screen. Let’s dive deeper into some of these use case examples.
Automated programming swaps for tailored experiences
One of the most basic near-term use cases enhanced metadata enables for linear video is machine-to-machine automation of program substitution. Once the rules-based engine is set up between the content provider and distributors, a seamless near error-free experience is created, whereby content providers can communicate their rights data to downstream distribution partners. Based on the rights metadata from the content providers, distributors then enable automatic program-level video content switching for blackouts, web embargos, regionalization, or other relevant use cases. The result is significant operational savings for all parties as well as risk management for errors by ensuring the right content gets consumed by the right audience.
Terrestrial Distribution: Broadcast’s new ground game
Another critical use case that enhancement metadata helps enable is the transition of satellite to IP-based video distribution. The obvious part of this transition is the actual transport of the video, which requires IP-based protocols like SRT or others to securely move the video from point A to point B. However, there also needs to be a system in place between the content provider and distributor to enable decision-making between the parties based on that metadata. It’s foundational to the services operators want to offer and the advanced advertising they want to support.
Advanced advertising needs more metadata
As we move toward the revenue side of how metadata can enhance linear video in the future, the first place to look is the advertising workflow. Historically, ad spots would be placed within live video feeds with little data about the ad viewers, previous ads shown to viewers, or even information contained in the actual video programming. That all changes with the ability to leverage the enhanced video workflow that is fully decorated with metadata. By leveraging this metadata flow, the video advertiser and the related ecosystem can determine which ads to replace, better target the ads to households or individuals that fit the ad demographics, ensure that the advertiser’s rules are applied correctly across ad pods regardless of the ad server being used, and, ultimately, create more intelligent ad decisions based not only on user but also on the ad and scene data from a video program. All these features ultimately generate higher CPM for the ecosystem.
There are several other great use cases of how metadata is either currently or in the future going to propel more growth and usage of linear video:
Second screen experiences are top of mind when it comes to metadata-based future use cases, and in-game betting is one of my favorites. Zero-latency streaming functionality is critical for this to work, but think about all the required metadata — betting rules, statistics, location, league, etc. It’s the metadata that makes this use case viable.
Dramatically improved personalization is another example, driven by metadata and the appropriate rules engine that could enable the content switching to occur automatically based on the metadata rules supplied to it.
Rules-based commerce could be enabled within a video stream that connects the video you are watching to brick-and-mortar commerce locations based on your location.
There are so many possibilities.
Metadata mastery is the new competitive advantage
The face of video is changing, and metadata is at its core. At Comcast Technology Solutions, we have the products, services, and expertise to help you enable these use cases and beyond. Specifically, our Linear Rights Management (LRM) product, which is based on the SCTE 224 standard, is a foundational SaaS-based solution that will serve as your foundation to this metadata-based future of video. It powers the experiences necessary to take advantage of this next level of growth, translating the metadata into the standard that enables the machine-to-machine automation required for content switching and other use cases that are based on the metadata rules.
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Regionalized/Time shifted Playout, Affiliate Distribution, RSNs, and Player Entitlements
Managing a broadcast network at scale is a difficult task even for the most knowledgeable broadcaster. One of your biggest challenges is efficiently and economically creating your live channel without having to invest in unnecessary infrastructure. This is especially true if your channel requires significant time shifting or regionalization. Add in requirements for Regional Sports Networks (RSNs), Local Affiliates, time shifted channel playout, the transition from satellite distribution to IP, TV Everywhere (TVE)/Over The Top (OTT) and you’ve got a handful.
To understand the issues and approach to streamlining operations for a Regional Broadcast Network, we will use the example of a large media company that functions as a broadcaster, content owner, group manager of affiliates and RSN came to Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) with four key challenges:
Regionalized Time Shifted Playout - Streamline their playout chain so that they could efficiently create and distribute their highly regionalized and time shifted channels to their affiliate partners.
Distribution - Enable rules based, program level rights management on behalf of their affiliate channel network for downstream vMVPD and MVPD distribution. This includes web embargos, fast forward and rewind, and start over and look back rights.
RSN Workflow - Enable automated management of blackout and content switching on behalf of their vast Regional Sports Networks for downstream vMVPD and MVPD distribution.
Player Entitlements - Enable program, schedule, and sports entitlement rules for internal TVE and OTT based applications.
Given these requirements, CTS determined the most efficient way to tackle these challenges and manage them at scale was to use SCTE-224 as the basis for communication within the video supply chain for decisioning. The SCTE-224 standard is an Event Schedule Notification Interface (ESNI) standard that lets you apply rules needed to control content access. It’s different than DRM in that DRM is typically applied at the channel level whereas SCTE-224 applies rules at a more granular program and audience device level
While SCTE-224 provides a common system-wide protocol and communication mechanism, it is only part of the equation. You also need the system in place that can make and apply the video switching and rules decisions based on the inputs provided by SCTE-224, which is ultimately connected to the video through the in-band SCTE-35 triggers. The combination of these two ensure the required decisions can be applied to video automatically and frame accurately, creating a seamless viewing experience.
HOW SCTE-224 SOLVES THESE CHALLENGES
We will now look at each of the 4 challenges outlined above in turn to see how SCTE-224 was applied and solved the broadcaster’s requirements. The CTS approach uses software running in the public cloud, which enables on demand processing and global availability via web browser. As a result, it is easy to access and make updates that roll out to the entire system immediately.
Regionalized Time Shifted Playout
The first task is to ingest the broadcaster’s data used to create their schedule and convert the information into SCTE-224 using our cloud framework. We do this on a per event, show, and station basis. From there the revamped schedule is sent out in a 224 format and encoders are notified of the start and end times of each program so they can insert the SCTE-35 into the video streams. Now that the system is flowing with the SCTE-224 and SCTE-35 data, the rules and policies are applied to create the contribution playout channel for each affiliate station. Each station will receive a customized auto-generated series of events that is driven by the 224 decisioning which is automatically switching the video to the appropriate content based on these decisions.
Distribution
After the Affiliates have received their automated regionalized playout from the cloud control system, they can populate it with additional local programs to create their 24-hour playout chain. This updated schedule is ingested into the cloud control system to create an SCTE-224 output along with various rules, policies, and audience data that are appropriate for the content. However, this time instead of creating the internal playout channel, the SCTE-224 system is used to identify which programs are restricted by web embargo, start over and look back for external distribution to vMVPDs and MVPDs.
RSN Workflow
For RSNs, through aggregation of the source, audience, mapping, schedule, and signal data, the system creates the SCTE-224 data flow. In this case, the audience and policy rules are based on requirements for each individual game, location, league, and operator. Based on the alignment of these rules, game content is blacked out or replaced for specific operators in various regions all managed by the cloud control system which saves the broadcaster significant time, money, and opportunity cost when managing their system as well as creating a clean user experience for the viewer.
Player Entitlements
Managing player entitlements makes use on an existing SCTE-224 system and converts the data into a usable format to provide Entitlement information for various uses cases for the Programmer’s internal player workflow. The case of a RSN, this is based on the user’s location, MVPD, device and team information. For example, the system identifies what region-specific team a user is eligible to watch and their associated blackout rules along with which scheduled program is restricted/un-restricted for a specific device, channel or brand before enabling the user to stream that content.
ENABLING WORKFLOWS WITH COMCAST TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS
Comcast Technology Solutions is uniquely positioned to enable regionalized time shifted playout, distribution, RSNs and player entitlement functionality by leveraging our Linear Rights Management (LRM) solution. Our product is provided as a SaaS (Software as a Service), running in the public cloud, minimizing the need for physical hardware, and making it quick to start using and implementing. We normalize all sources that will drive our customers systems to a standard SCTE-224 format and then leverage a backend rules engine and decision manager to enable the switching of video content from a centralized control center. The system is designed with a sleek UI that enables operations personnel to track, audit, and make changes as necessary. We integrate seamlessly with your video stitching infrastructure or can provide that functionality as a service ourselves. As your needs change over time, it’s simple to make changes and roll them out immediately across your whole network.
With Comcast Technology Solutions, you have a powerful and flexible way to implement regionalized and time-shifted playout, program level web embargos and start over/look back restrictions, sports blackouts, and program and user-based entitlement services that can be managed from anywhere with an internet connection.
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Taking Control of Regionalization with SCTE 224
Media and entertainment companies around the world deliver content to all screens that spans multiple time zones and regions. To create a more compelling viewing experience and keep viewers watching for longer, they may deliver time-delayed content across time zones and allow for local programs to be inserted in the regions they serve. There is a growing trend to add greater regionalization capabilities and make video consumption even more relevant to consumers in different geographies. The objective is to increase revenue from advertising and improve audience retention over time.
As the level of sophistication around controlling how a channel should be presented to the viewer increases, so to does the level of complexity. This covers a range of scenarios for how and when we want regions to behave differently from each other.
Examples include:
Event blackouts for viewers in certain regions are not entitled to see;
Content replacement using streams from other feeds;
Content insertion made specifically for a region that includes local native languages;
Dynamic ad insertion; and,
How to handle cases where viewers travel outside of their local area, but still want to watch the home channel on a mobile app.
Enabling Technology
As an industry, we can enable greater regionalization and have control of the process by using SCTE 224, an Event Scheduling Notification Interface (ESNI) standard that lets us describe what the audience for a channel can see over time. In other words, it creates the rules we need to control content access and therefore lets us address the complexities of managing regional content.
For a system to be practical, particularly at scale, it should be controlled centrally. This way, rules we want regional participants to follow can be pushed out to each region, so they know in advance what to do for each channel. Since SCTE 224 gives us a common format, the provider can automate its responses to these rules.
What is delivered by using SCTE 224 are trigger events that are sent in advance of the live stream for each channel. Each region is provided with its own specific set of trigger events it will use to implement the prescribed operations. These trigger events may be shared with other regions or may be unique to a region. SCTE 224 gives us the power to make these determinations. It also lets us make changes as needed, and post updates to affected regions immediately.
For the content originators, the result is that all content access rights are controlled centrally and made available to participants in a common form. This makes execution less prone to error since a common format is used by all participant regions.
While SCTE 224 defines how we want to manage the regions, we also need to associate this with video in the channels themselves. This is achieved using SCTE 35 in-band triggers — trigger data that is embedded in the stream carrying the channel. Triggers define exactly when an event needs to take place. When an SCTE 35 trigger arrives, it can be matched with the rule provided by SCTE 224 to ensure the system takes the correct action at that time. The benefit of this method is it accurately aligns the rules we want to enforce with the video and creates a clean viewing experience for consumers.
Enabling Workflows with Comcast Technology Solutions
Comcast Technology Solutions is uniquely positioned to enable practical and powerful solutions for regionalization in support of hundreds of channels and all the regions in your network. This includes the ecosystem used to enable the system at each regional participant so that IRDs switch to the correct sources, blackouts are applied, DAI is triggered, and users watch the right variant of a channel for their current location.
Our solution is provided as a SaaS (Software as a Service), running in the public cloud, minimizing the need for physical hardware, and making it quick to start using and implementing. By normalizing all sources that drive your system to a standard SCTE 224 format, we make it easy to set up and fine tune each region. This includes defining regions by zip code, setting the rules for channel access and interaction with dynamic ad insertion. As your needs change over time, it’s simple to make changes and roll them out immediately across your whole network.
With Comcast Technology Solutions, you have a powerful and flexible way to implement regionalization that can be managed from anywhere with an internet connection.
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Video Quality: Table Stakes for Audience Loyalty
“When consumers are paying for something or receiving video from a big-brand media company, they expect a premium high-quality experience. It has to be as good as TV, on every platform and device – and that’s our main priority in the years ahead.”
The above quote comes from one of the executives who participated in our newest research project with MTM (which is available at the bottom of this page). It’s not exactly a revelatory statement, but I’d argue that in my years with this industry I haven’t seen any evidence that consumer expectations for premium quality end with premium services. It’s quite literally the cornerstone of every video-centric service: if the video quality isn’t up to par, the best marketing in the world won’t matter, and frankly neither will the best content.
In Hindsight, Just How Clear Will 2020 Be?
This decade has started off with events that have upended a lot of trend lines – or sent them skyrocketing, as the case may be. Deloitte Insights recently published the fourteenth edition of their Media Insights survey, and it provides some fascinating data around how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted streaming services. We already know that usage in every category shot through the roof – that’s been one of the biggest media stories of the year, as giant bandwidth consumers like Netflix and YouTube even agreed to temporarily reduce their usage by double-digit percentages by throttling back on 4K and hi-definition programming.
From a quality standpoint, it’s all a stark reminder to media companies that they’ve got to be ready for anything. For many consumers who purchase subscriptions and on-demand content, or who are supposed to be influenced by advertising, the pandemic has had an impact on both spending habits and budgets. Set against the backdrop of increased usage and cancel-at-any-time subscriptions, it’s clear that media destinations have to demonstrate more value on a daily basis in order to maintain screen time with consumers who are looking to cut costs.
Strong initial offers, incentives, or tentpole “big-event” content can do wonders for short-term gains, but the actual viewing experience has to be consistently on point in order to cultivate short-term watchers into a growing community and to build audience loyalty. It really is the sword that media companies need to keep sharp on both edges:
On one side is content – simply put, providing the things that people want to keep watching; not just to attract viewers, but potentially advertisers as well.
On the other side is the fact that on a global scale, you’ve got to serve that content to an ever-changing planet full of screens, most of which are mobile.
A content and distribution plan that’s built for quality is the first step for being competitive in the coming decade. From there, successful audience building needs a continued dedication to relationship building and performance optimization in order to get the most value out of every creative and operational investment. We reached out to a cross-section of our peers to see what that looks like.
New Paper: The TV 2025 Initiative
Comcast Technology Solutions has partnered with international research and strategy consulting firm MTM to present the TV 2025 Initiative; a collection of industry perspectives on the continued transformation of the video industry, and thoughts about what the future may hold for streaming services as we embark on a new decade.
Senior executives from over two dozen large media and entertainment companies participated in the research, sharing their current experiences and future expectations over a wide range of topics, tackling questions such as:
Now that streaming has finally come into its own, What are others in the industry expecting, from a quality and scale standpoint, for streaming’s near-term (and long-term) future?
What best practice trends are developing? How are media companies building a mix of internal teams and partner-driven expertise? How will your growth impact your technology’s ability to deliver broadcast-quality experiences?
At the rate of change in just the first part of this year, 2025 already feels like it’s practically around the corner; what do today’s executives think will be driving industry transformation? What can be learned in order to chart a strong course from here to there?
Get the paper right now, right here.
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What’s Your Five Year Plan?
It’s been a long quarter this week.
At least around our virtual office, that’s been a general consensus pretty much all year long. It’s a feeling that gets stronger as we look a back to the beginning of the year. Remember, way back in January? Before the concept of “social distancing” was in our daily lexicon? Or “virtual office” became a default setting? Remember when 2020 just looked like the start of another busy decade? Today, it feels different. It is different. I don’t think it matters where your skills or services sit in the overall scheme of media services and technologies. Even a pure entertainment destination feels more like an essential service than ever before.
But even as every week has a make-or-break feel to it, from content performance to network load to playback quality, all it takes is a little five-year perspective to recognize an insescapable truth: 2015 was nothing like 2020. And 2025 is likely going to be a whole new ballgame in and of itself. We’re all working hard to pivot with our audiences to stay relevant; but those long-term roadmaps are still as important as ever.
More Devices, More Power, More Viewing
At the end of 2019, Deloitte published its first Connectivity and Mobile Trends survey, which provides some powerful insights for advertisers, agencies, and media companies as they define their technology roadmaps and partnerships for the coming decade. It’s no secret that the upward trajectory of video advertising is placing more pressure on every mechanism and process that brings an ad from production to multi-platform consumption.
Deloitte’s data shows that within an average U.S. household, there are currently around eleven connected devices, at least seven of which have screens for video. This is a huge leap from just a few years ago: in 2014, a similar survey by Ericsson showed an average of around five connected devices. The focus of the survey wasn’t just about what’s going on today, but also to see how connectivity impacts consumption, and how behaviors might change as data gets faster.
Think about the basic paradigm shifts we’re dealing with in our workplaces in homes, and how these shifts impact content consumption. In our own research (more on that below), industry professionals we contacted made particular note of the fact that a lot of the changes in consumption habits, spurred on by quarantines and social distancing, aren’t going to go away. Coupled with the faster, more capable networks of the not-too-distant future, more viewers have first-hand experience in what streaming has to offer. But what happens when “connected” becomes a foregone conclusion for even more devices? Certainly, the media market is going to get even more diverse, driving a real need for more automation, better data, and more emphasis on personalized experiences that win screens.
Streaming’s Growing Competitive Landscape
In just the past year, premium streaming content has blown up, with major content owners like Disney, HBO, and NBC Universal (also a Comcast company) bringing their wares to bear with an in-house offering. Streaming as a whole has really come into its own, with the experience itself commanding more respect (and investment) than the “bolted-on” feel of older iterations that just barely satisfied the goal of providing “something in the OTT space.”
With so many big media names launching new offerings of their own, it’s important not to overlook the increasing potential for smaller, niche channels to thrive. In fact, as we all spend more time focusing on customer journeys and personalization of content, it’s never been a better time for new audience-specific destinations to partner up with the platforms and technology providers needed to stand up a brand that’s new, differentiated, and advertising-supported.
New Paper: The TV 2025 Initiative
What’s your five year plan? Comcast Technology Solutions has again partnered with international research and strategy consulting firm MTM to present the TV 2025 Initiative; a collection of industry perspectives on the transformation of TV and thoughts about what the future may hold for streaming services as we embark on a new decade.
Senior executives from over two dozen companies participated in the research, sharing their current experiences and future expectations over a wide range of topics, tackling questions such as:
Now that streaming has finally come into its own, how are you managing your services? Are there differences between approaches based on complexity, or based on a service’s relationship with a broadcast service?
What best practice trends are developing? How are media companies building a mix of internal teams and partner-driven expertise?
At the rate of change in just the first part of this year, 2025 already feels like it’s practically around the corner; what do today’s executives think will be driving industry transformation? What can be learned in order to chart a strong course from here to there?
Get the paper right now, right here.
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Get your head in the clouds
Make “me-time” more accessible to your audience, regardless of the situation.
No matter how your business sees the future, keeping pace with evolving viewing habits is critical to growing your audience. Consumers now expect the ability to curate their own viewing experiences, including where, when, and how they watch.
According to Deloitte, on average more than 60% of Millennials and Generation Z consume streaming video daily. By comparison, less than 30% of Baby Boomers stream video daily.
Therefore, it’s imperative to make the user experience seamless across all screens to reduce user confusion, and friction to using your service. This means linking to on-demand content and functionality from the broadcast experience with services like instant restart, and making all devices behave the same. Now is the time to streamline the viewing experience by converging broadcast and digital to reduce costs and overheads.
Innovative business models can help make your offering accessible for ever-more niche groups of users. For example, if the data says your millennial viewers are only interested in your reality TV shows, then make a reality TV show bundle. If the Baby Boomers want classic movies or news, you can also do likewise.
While people adapt their viewing habits, and to using new services, at different paces, technology keeps evolving. Historically, technology has required linear and digital businesses be run as two separate units. But, by converging broadcast and OTT systems, broadcasters and operators can significantly reduce the doubling-up of efforts to drive savings and increase operational efficiencies.
With a Cloud TV platform, you can put an end to consumer confusion, and create engaging user and brand experiences, while providing the tools needed for business model innovation.
Maximize reach and revenue with a complete cloud-based solution that works on any device, with any business model, and launch unified user experiences across all devices.
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Automobile Advertising: Keeping Dealers In Alignment
Automobile manufacturers advertise the experience of driving and using a car. Automobile dealers do too, but more importantly they advertise the experience of buying and owning that car from their dealership. Together, both manufacturer and dealer are working to court new car buyers in a concerted effort to win loyalty on multiple levels – and if everything stays on track, over multiple car purchases. In fact, according to a 2019 white paper by AutoPoint*, the post-purchase experience means 52% more to brand loyalty than in any other industry. So, when it comes to advertising, dealers need all the love they can get from the carmakers they represent.
As advertising gets more complicated, and ad destinations get more diverse, the need for manufacturers and dealers to be in alignment has never been greater. At the top, brand continuity and marketing quality benefit immeasurably by helping the ad operations at the dealer level to operate smoothly. And, it must be stated that the sophistication of those individual dealers varies from shop to shop. An individual outlet needs the same media as a high-powered dealer network with multiple brands and locations, and needs to get their ads completed and in-market just as quickly, but likely with a smaller budget. The easier it is for each constituent in the advertising workflow to find, share, and manipulate ad creative, the better.
An “Internal Collaboration Engine” for Advertisers
For one of our clients, a major global automotive brand, improving the speed and accuracy of media management with dealers is a two-way benefit: for the brand, it’s easier to keep campaigns on course, and for the individual dealers it’s improving their ability to get their work done and delivered on time.
Big-budget creative is filmed and created by the manufacturer for a wide variety of vehicles, from sports cars to sport-utility vehicles. Dealers need this footage as the foundation for their own spots by adding their own messaging: promotions, incentives, sales floor footage, service center specials, etc. Like every advertising effort, every commercial must be transcoded into a multitude of formats. Multiplied across products, and with multiple campaigns active simultaneously at any given time, it gets really complicated for dealers to find and access the media files they need.
“As we explored how to improve this internal relationship, we recognized this fantastic synergy between a problem our partner needed solving, and a similar problem we had already solved for internally in a completely different area,” explains Simon Morris, Senior Director of Product Sales, Advertiser Solutions. “We had built a tool that made it easy for our broadcast partners to find our ad creative easily through a secure cloud-based tool, and then grab the right version with the correct aspect ratio and coding. So, to create something for automotive dealers, the foundation was already there, and that meant it was easy to organize and display content in a way that worked for our automotive partners. We continue to focus on building tools that solve wider industry needs, and in particular ones that are focused on driving operational efficiencies, speed and transparency.”
The portal isn’t just a static “box in the sky,” but also a vehicle to improve communication within the internal ad ecosystem. No one wants to use creative that might be outdated, and all content needs to be in accordance with talent and other contractual rights associated with it. Integrated with the Ad Management Platform, the new portal accomplishes this, giving dealers a straightforward way to get automatic updates and notifications of newly available creative.
New Article: The Great Car Chase
The manufacturer – dealer relationship is not unique to the automobile industry. Many industries have similar advertising relationships with franchisees that stretch globally: consumer-packaged goods companies, restaurant chains, or other complex product creators whose ongoing consumer relationships will be nurtured and maintained at a local level.
In our new paper, The Great Car Chase, we use the automotive industry as our vehicle to examine advertising complexity at the highest level, and how to gain control of it. Global companies can – and must – shift to a centralized architecture that improves both transparency and control across all of their global ad traffic. In doing so, they can also position themselves to incorporate new technologies that will deliver tailored content in real time; elevating the performance of every campaign. Read it to learn more about how to:
Maximize ROI by optimizing through a unified solution that promotes collaboration and informs better decisions across the entire workflow to elicit stronger, positive buyer responses
Optimize on the fly to meet tight deadlines, handle versioning needs automatically, and respond quickly to changing opportunities
Simplify access and management of creative assets for local dealerships.
Deliver campaigns worldwide using one centralized platform.
Take back control and become the conductor of your brand across any market, any screen.
*Customer Loyalty Drivers – Current and Future, AutoPoint, April 2020
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