VideoNuze Posts

I’m thrilled to share the first group of sponsors for VideoNuze’s inaugural Connected TV Advertising Brand Suitability Summit (virtual) on the afternoons of November 16th and 17th. Pixability is the Presenting Partner; Mediaocean is a Gold Partner and FreeWheel and Roku are Silver Partners. Each of these companies is a leader in their particular field within the industry, and each will have an executive speaking at the Summit. I am extremely grateful for their early commitment to the event. All are past partners in VideoNuze events and many of their executives are trusted colleagues and longstanding friends.

The Summit is the first and only connected TV advertising industry event that is 100% focused on all aspects of brand suitability and safety, including the integral role of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I).  According to eMarketer, CTV advertising will exceed $13 billion in 2021, and will more than double, to over $27 billion in 2025. As CTV advertising gains a larger share of both linear TV and digital ad spending, it is poised to play a more important role in brand suitability and DE&I.

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I’m really excited to share that GroupM, Horizon Media and UM are the first Agency Partners of VideoNuze’s inaugural Connected TV Advertising Brand Suitability Summit (virtual) on the afternoons of November 16th and 17th.

GroupM is the largest media investment firm in the world, responsible for more than $50 billion in annual client spending; Horizon Media is the largest independent media agency in the world; and UM is the strategic media planning and buying agency arm of the IPG Mediabrands family of agencies. I deeply appreciate their support of this highly relevant first-time industry event.

Agency Partners will have their executives speaking at the Summit, and they will use their best efforts to have colleagues/clients/partners register and attend as complimentary guests. Agency partners will also co-promote the Summit. I have committed to redirecting 10% of sponsorship revenue to Agency Partners to support their DE&I initiatives.

More Agency Partners will be announced soon.

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A little update on VideoNuze today: I’m pleased to share a new VideoNuze logo and fully redesigned web site and daily newsletter. I hope that you’ll find the logo to be modern and lively. The icon is meant to evoke both the “play” nature of video and also a sense of “forward movement” that tries to capture the dynamic state of our industry. I also hope that you’ll find the web site and newsletter clean, simple and easy to read, which were my primary goals with the redesign project.

Irrespective of the new logo and redesign, the core elements of VideoNuze remain: daily (or almost daily) posts, constant curation of relevant news from third-party industry sources, “Inside the Stream” podcasts I’m privileged to record each week with nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon and periodic “Perspectives” byline articles from industry executives (more of which I’d like to run). On the main navigation bar are easy links to VideoNuze’s upcoming events and last but not least there’s a tab to browse by “Categories” and search.

An updated logo and redesign have been on my “to do” list for longer than I care to admit. Part of me has felt like the proverbial “cobbler whose kids have no shoes.” On a daily basis I write about the most up-to-date happenings in our industry, yet the design of my own site and logo were a little bit “Soviet era” if were to be honest. In my defense though, I don’t think I’ve slacking off; over the years since I launched VideoNuze, I have written approximately 2,500 posts (that’s about 2 million words in case you were wondering), curated nearly 20,000 news items from third-party sources and recorded over 600 podcast episodes.

Beyond the content, I have organized over 20 VideoNuze events that have been attended by thousands of colleagues and at which hundreds of executives have spoken. I’ve also organized panels and keynotes at major industry events like NABShow, CES, etc. that have been attended by many others. November 16th and 17th will bring VideoNuze’s highest impact event yet, the Connected TV Advertising Brand Suitability Summit. And for the first time, in 2022, there will be three VideoNuze events focused on CTV advertising. I’m really excited to share more details about them soon.

Whew!

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Welcome to this week’s edition of Inside the Stream, the podcast where nScreenMedia’s Chief Analyst Colin Dixon and I take listeners inside the world of streaming video.

YouTube TV and NBCUniversal have become embroiled in a highly public dispute about the details of their distribution agreement. On today’s episode, Colin and Will discuss what’s really behind the dispute and the larger industry shifts that impacting the negotiation.

It is a very complicated situation as each company is trying to hold on to certain industry conventions (such as most favored nation pricing), while also broadening into new areas (such as including Peacock Premium, a streaming service, with underlying YouTube TV subscriptions). Each company also comes to the table with a host of business imperatives, with many driven by Wall Street’s expectations and the overall streaming market’s evolution.

Colin and I try to break things down. As I mention, one significant factor weighing on my assessment of things is Comcast’s gigantic missed opportunity when it decided not to acquire the 70% of Hulu it didn’t already own, back in 2018 when Comcast and Disney were battling over control of Fox (see "Why Comcast Should Take Control of Hulu" from May, 2018). Comcast had a one-time opportunity to vastly expand its footprint in streaming and CTV advertising and likely to position a combined Hulu-Peacock entity for eventual spin-off (see "Quick Math Shows Comcast Missed Out on Almost $6 Billion in Annual Revenue by Not Buying the Rest of Hulu" from January, 2020).

Instead Comcast passed and became a passive owner in Hulu. Comcast will eventually realize a nice return on this stake, but Comcast needs strategic assets for the streaming era far more than it needs additional cash.

Listen to the podcast (36 minutes, 27 seconds)

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Last week brought another step forward in the evolution of streaming and connected TV advertising’s evolution to becoming a full-funnel marketing solution with the launch of Wurl Perform from Wurl, which powers the distribution of 1,200+ streaming channels in 50+ countries. As VideoNuze readers know, I have been steadily beating the drum for how, and why, streaming and CTV advertising need to evolve beyond mainly reach and frequency KPIs, to also enable advertisers to pursue lower-funnel KPIs.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of Inside the Stream, the podcast where nScreenMedia’s Chief Analyst Colin Dixon and I take listeners inside the world of streaming video.

This week we’re really excited to have Bonnie Kintzer, President and CEO of Trusted Media Brands, join us on the podcast. TMB has a storied history as the owner of The Readers Digest, but more recently it has become a player in online media and digital video. Properties like “Taste of Home” and “Family Handyman” have evolved to have strong online presence online where they drive value from advertising, subscriptions and commerce.

Now TMB is planning for these and other of its brands to have a much bigger presence in CTV and streaming, following TMB’s acquisition of Jukin Media in August. Bonnie explains exactly what motivated TMB, the value she anticipates being created, the role of dedicated OTT channels going forward and where commerce fits into the plan. Bonnie also discusses the essential role of first-party data and how TMB/Jukin are leveraging it across properties. Last but not least, Bonnie discusses the broader marketplace and the best practices a publisher like TMB is pursuing to ensure long-term success in online and CTV.

Listen in to learn more!

Listen to the podcast (38 minutes, 29 seconds)

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Yesterday’s partnership announcement between Roku and Shopify brings CTV advertising another step closer to realizing its ultimate potential as a full-funnel channel for advertisers. Loyal VideoNuze readers know that I have been advocating for CTV advertising to become full-funnel for a while now (see “How CTV Advertising Can Drive Super Bowl Ads Above $10 Million Per Spot,” “Behold, YouTube,” “The CTV Advertising Flywheel is Here, and It’s Only Going to Accelerate,” and “Connected TV’s Big Opportunity at the Bottom of the Funnel.”).

CTV advertising is of course surging these days, with eMarketer forecasting CTV ads in the U.S. alone will more than double to over $27 billion in 2021. CTV ads are benefiting from proliferating adoption of CTV devices, many new streaming services creating compelling content for audiences, cord-cutting, and massive changes in viewers’ behaviors. Still, when I talk to industry executives, there’s broad consensus that today CTV ad spending is coming mostly from the shift in spending from linear TV to CTV as advertisers seek to maintain their reach and frequency goals. In other words, CTV is mainly a “follow the eyeballs” strategy.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of Inside the Stream, the podcast where nScreenMedia’s Chief Analyst Colin Dixon and I take listeners inside the world of streaming video.

On this week’s podcast Colin and I discuss why Apple has been surpassed by Amazon in CTV and streaming video. As Colin articulates very well in “Five ways Amazon is Crushing Apple in the CTV Market” earlier this week, Apple was early to market with its Apple TV CTV device (albeit at the very high price point of $299), and was also the dominant player in movie and TV show rentals and purchases with iTunes not that long ago. But major product strategy mistakes and decisions by Apple, combined with deft, low margin and user-friendly moves by Amazon have led the two companies’ positions in these critical markets to completely reverse themselves. With this new normal, what lies ahead?

One big measure Apple has taken to try course correcting has been the launch of Apple TV+. We start this week’s podcast by understanding why Apple is spending so heavily on original TV shows for the service, which it is expected to spend $500 million marketing in 2022. A new analysis by the WSJ illuminates Apple’s heavy product placement agenda, in support of ecosystem loyalty and core device sales. As I explain, this strategy - along with Amazon’s - has potentially big implications for established and newer media companies still reliant on traditional advertising and subscription revenue models.

Listen to the podcast (29 minutes, 26 seconds)

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