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Digital video is quickly becoming the new hero of the ad world, thanks to its combination of the power of TV and the targetability of digital.

But in a fragmented media environment, with consumers viewing content across multiple screens, executing video buys can be a complicated undertaking. For maximum effectiveness, audiences need to be targeted and pieced together from a number of sources. Hence, digital video requires multiple buying styles, unlike the relative ease of buying a TV timeslot.

Programmatic approaches can help manage these complexities. Savvy marketers are making it their business to not only understand programmatic principles, but to flip traditional planning and buying methods, by partnering with the major supply sources to effectively plan for the best outcomes and ensure brand safety.

If you’re confused on best practice for planning video across screens, here are five tips to help navigate the minefield.

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More people are paying for more streaming video. Netflix’s Reed Hastings and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have insisted that people owning multiple subscriptions will be the norm. On Netflix’s recent Q2 earnings call, Hastings emphasized that Amazon’s success in certain markets has not taken away from Netflix’s.
 
A recently published report from IBB Consulting shows the underlying trends behind these claims, revealing that half of paid streaming users subscribe to at least two services. Streaming users are also prepared to spend on additional services or even pay more for the subscriptions they already have. In fact, based on average SVOD pricing, a majority (61%) of SVOD subscribers are willing to pay at least 20% more for their favorite service. 29% of paid OTT video subscribers plan to add an additional paid service within the next six months.

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When an uncharted territory is discovered, it’s human nature to want to explore it. Consumers’ dramatic adoption of digital video presents just such a new frontier for programmatic advertising: how to leverage Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) to help media providers effectively commercialize the high-quality, long-form video experiences that consumers love.

Digital advertising is booming, and spending on digital video in particular is hitting new heights. This year, marketers in the U.S. will spend more money on digital ads than on TV1 and digital spend in the U.S. will grow 15.9 percent—an additional $83 billion in revenue. Perhaps more remarkably, by 2020, fully half of the rising spend on digital video will transact via programmatic channels in automated marketplaces.

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Execs from broadcasters, content owners and tech companies recently joined 100,000 of their peers at the NABShow 2017 convention in Las Vegas. A key focus for many at the show was how to drive breakthrough multiscreen experiences, get consumers to engage more and fully monetize the many opportunities that are emerging.

During the Online Video Conference's “Breaking Through With New TV Experiences” session I moderated, attendees heard about the latest efforts underway by industry leaders to bring more personalization, discoverability and innovation to content delivery. Consumers have an incredible range of choices of multiscreen services that now span beyond VOD and linear to include fast-evolving OTT offerings. Representatives from Comcast Technology Solutions, Amazon, Gracenote and TiVo joined the discussion to shed insight into ongoing work, challenges ahead and what it takes to deliver industry-leading multi-screen experiences. Panelists also pulled back the curtain on the back-end capabilities that will be required to support these increasingly complex services.

 
IBB Consulting works closely with operators and content owners to help design and execute multiscreen distribution strategies. Many of the efforts and activities that we heard about from the panelists are being undertaken or considered by a range of stakeholders today.

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There’s a lot happening in programmatic video advertising today – new ad formats, new measurement standards and new placements. For a major multinational brand that’s relatively new to the medium, there’s a lot to consider.

It’s even more perplexing in an industry that tends to promote "the next big thing" before it’s really ready for prime time. A classic example of this was when the industry was poised to abandon Flash and head full-tilt into HTML5, when most of the available inventory was still exclusively in Flash. Today, there’s so much talk about connected TV and native video, many brand advertisers may be adding budget lines for these shiny new objects.

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Speed and growth. Two themes that publishers leveraging video really care about. In 2017, so far, publishers are using more sophisticated tools to measure, automate, and improve processes. In fact, using data and automation for video to drive larger, more engaged audiences and more effective monetization, is more important than ever.

However, buzzwords don’t push the needle. Driving video business in the real world comes with a host of challenges, and fragmented efforts often tamp down any real growth.

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There’s been a lot of hype over the past few years how TV broadcasters need to be cognizant of second screens like smartphones and tablets that can distract viewers. Now the first screen is getting revenge.

Facebook, for one, is said to be developing a video-centric app for TV set-top boxes that would bring its content to TV. The move comes as the digital video ad market is projected to double by 2019 and publishers have been strongly pushing video ad inventory.

For younger consumers in particular, the distinction between screens is irrelevant. About half of consumers watch movies and TV over the Internet daily. Some 63% of Americans own an Internet-connected TV.

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Supply-side platforms (SSPs) love to tout unique and premium video inventory. The reality is premium video inventory is scarce, and unique premium video inventory is even more rare.

To put it another way, “if you’re a content company and you’re not Facebook, Google, and Snapchat, you’re in the niche ad business,” said Meredith Kopit Levien, EVP and CRO of The New York Times. The good news: Scarcity is a good thing.

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