Are OTT Ads Skippable?

With OTT video platforms and their content continuing to take over the media landscape, many companies are looking for OTT marketing opportunities. However, given that the OTT landscape is constantly changing, it can be difficult to determine where your advertising dollars should go. OTT ads, for instance, are easy to set up. Nevertheless, they can be beat with certain software, and many ads are skippable. What is the best OTT marketing strategy, then? Let's take a closer look.

Are OTT Ads Skippable?

OTT Platforms Set the Rules

Whether viewers can skip ads or not will depend on the platform's settings. Some OTT platforms allow you to skip ads after a certain amount of time has passed, while others do not have skippable ads. Some platforms allow users to pay a monthly fee to remove all ads, which means even less viewership for your marketing campaign.

Even though we still recommend using OTT ads to market to your target audience, you can employ better OTT advertising and marketing strategies to position your products and services more effectively.

The Best OTT Marketing Strategies

Instead of simply setting up an ad run and letting it ride for a monthly fee, look for opportunities to latch onto content that your target audience enjoys. Break down your target demographic's interests and ask yourself what kind of person buys what we sell? Go find that content and reach out to its creators. Try to arrange advertising deals with them directly.

You get much more precise targeting this way. In addition, you create your own relationships that transcend a single platform. How does this manifest in OTT advertising? You can have advertising baked into the content created by others, sponsor entire productions or segments, and even attach your brand to others in surprising ways.

Baked-in Advertising

Your pre-roll ads, which might be skipped by viewers, will only be live as long as you pay for them. But if you could get your products and services baked into the content itself, then your ad becomes permanent. Every time someone plays that content, they see your brand. These opportunities are possible when you reach out to creators directly.

Just take any food travel show for instance. Every week they cover various restaurants, and even though they may not be giving an explicit recommendation, those restaurants will see a permanent increase in business.

Sponsored Content

Sponsoring entire episodes is another great way to get your brand placed into content directly. YouTube channels famously have used this to great effect since a sponsored segment is not skippable and the creator has more control over how to present the information. To what degree you integrate your brand with the sponsorship is up to you, but the best results occur when your sponsorship is tightly woven into the script.

Brand Partnerships

Brand partnerships make a ton of sense in OTT advertising strategy. Since content can be much more tailored to a specific audience, it's much easier to find these partnerships. And when you work with a content distributor, it's even easier.

At Lightcast, we help content creators distribute across as many OTT platforms as possible. For advertisers, we can help you make the right connections to ensure that your marketing dollars go further. Contact Lightcast to request a callback to learn more.