When we talk about VOD advertising in this context, we are talking about when a consumer goes to their VOD service provided by their cable operator, chooses the TV episode they want to watch, and ads plays throughout the episode. Canoe powers VOD ad insertion for every major broadcast and cable programmer in the United States including CBS, NBCU, Scripps, Turner, and Viacom. In just two years after inserting the first ad, Canoe has inserted over 10 billion ads into VOD. This is because marketers are finding that VOD is a good investment. There is not only new marketers trying VOD, but more importantly, existing marketers are returning for a second and third time, and returning with bigger impression goals and budgets. And campaigns are from a diversified group of categories, including retail, studios, QSR, auto and telecommunications. VOD is now seen as a safe investment for a wide variety of brands.
So, Why? Mainly because VOD has all the impact of prime-time TV with the accountability promise of digital -- the best of both worlds without their negatives. Simply, it is measureable engagement. As with TV, the VOD viewer watches mainly on a large-screen TV in the living room and has made a conscience decision to engage in that TV episode. And like digital, the advertiser is getting back reporting based on viewed ad impressions and not from a sample. By providing an accurate, fraud-free, verified count to each viewed ad in VOD, Canoe now provides the data for national programmers to trade on VOD on with the advertisers. It compliments and adds to measurement from folks like Nielsen, Rentrak, and ComScore. But marketers have to be careful about what other digital options they choose. VOD does not have any of the well-documented fraud issues associated with digital advertising. Since VOD operates on a closed cable operator infrastructure, the “bad guys” cannot get in. Not every digital medium can say that.
And marketers get this accountability with the brand safety they need, knowing they are investing in high-quality, premium programming from the top TV networks. And data show that consumers watch the commercials in VOD. On average, viewers watch 28 minutes of a 30-minute episode on VOD, compared with 20 minutes for linear TV and 23 minutes for DVR. With VOD viewing at about 7% of TV viewing, advertisers can now get all of these benefits at scale.
The Canoe VOD platform is in 32+M households across 34 of the top 30 DMAs making VOD a viable alternative in the media mix because of the scale. Marketers can take advantage of this opportunity by reaching out to each Programmer sales team as National VOD ad inventory is sold by each Programmer as part of their overall TV and Digital offerings.
Canoe, an advertising technology company formed by top cable providers, powers much of the video on demand advertising landscape. Chris Pizzurro, product, sales and marketing chief at Canoe. http://canoeventures.com