SVOD, AVOD, BVOD or FAST? We need to break down these silos
Opinion
Our industry loves acronyms but agencies, media planners and brands are all becoming lost in this alphabet soup, warns Samsung Ads’ UK head of sales.
Connected TV, which our industry has acronymised to CTV, has been the ‘it’ word in advertising for some time now and for good reason. Agencies and brands have clocked that consuming TV via the internet is a trend that’s only gaining pace.
Of course, in practice, that means that what we used to mean by TV — linear — doesn’t really apply any more. And, so, as an industry famed for its love of keeping our terminology simple and transparent (!) we carefully labelled every new format. Lovingly and painstakingly, we categorised TV content as SVOD (subscription video-on-demand), or AVOD (ad-funded VOD), or BVOD (broadcaster VOD), or FAST (free, ad-supported television).
Today, ITVX alone could reasonably be classed as every single one of those acronyms.
Channelling change
This is where the problems begin for both viewers and brands. When they first appeared, streaming platforms used to fall neatly into clearly defined buckets with their associated acronym. Marketers and agency planners/buyers could grasp the distinctions between linear and CTV and the new concepts that set them apart.
Now, with the newly-coined hybrid video-on-demand (HVOD) and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services, the lines blur ever further. Consider the arrival of ad-funded subscription tiers on classic subscription platforms like Netflix and Disney+ — and we start to see that our acronyms might be holding back our thinking.
Questions have been quick to emerge from across the industry about classifying this latest development. Would the controversial HVOD label suit them better — or should they be shifted into the AVOD category?
More to the point — does it even matter?
Tuning in to your audience
“Did you catch the latest episode of Happy Valley on BBC’s BVOD service last night?”
“What is your favourite SVOD service: Amazon or Disney+?”
Do either of these sentences sound familiar? Probably not, because that’s not how real people talk. Viewers don’t differentiate between platforms the same way that the media industry does. Viewers gravitate towards great content — perhaps with a little cost analysis on the side.
Agencies, media planners and partners are all becoming lost in this alphabet soup. Arguments about which acronym applies best to which streaming service is a distraction from the primary goal — evaluating which streaming environment is best-equipped to help meet their marketing objectives based on the audiences that gravitate to each, whilst also offering sufficient ROI on their adspend.
Taking a different view
The solution? Concentrate on what matters — understanding and reaching the viewer.
Getting to grips with consistently changing streaming habits is the first step to veering away from the misrepresentative terminology, but this is only possible when we have the data to understand consumers’ streaming habits. From modelled data such as that offered by Barb Audiences, to targeting data like our own proprietary automatic content recognition (ACR), there are plenty of datasets that can and should be combined for a given brand to start to think not about whether budget goes to AVOD or BVOD (or HVOD or FAST or ‘SVOD with ads’), but on how they can best leverage their budget to reach the audience where they are actually viewing content.
To be clear, it’s not the acronyms themselves that we need to work on — but ensuring that silos between the groups that work on each are broken down. This is the most common complaint I get when speaking to agency planners and buyers: a fragmented approach to a fragmented audience isn’t necessarily the best idea. TV audiences may be split, but from a planning point of view, we need to take a holistic approach when planning any TV or even digital video campaign (lest we forget — many people enjoy YouTube from their TV device).
The time has come for our industry to shift its mindset. Building comprehensive databases around consumers’ viewing preferences — such as total screen time and favourite genres — is the strongest foundation from which to launch engaging, personalised and impactful advertising.
TV is just TV in the eyes of the viewer. Acronyms shift in meaning and aren’t reflective of how we consume and engage with quality entertainment on an individual level.
Data is always the key to unlocking long-term advertising success and streaming can deliver a treasure trove of insight. The industry needs to break free from its beloved terminology and emerge with a fresh perspective to strike gold.
Andy Jones is head of UK sales at Samsung Ads