Live events are current, engaging, and communal. For this reason, publishers have made them center stage within their streaming platforms, creating new opportunities for viewers, advertisers, and publishers alike.
Yet, pivoting to airing live events primarily on streaming platforms comes with challenges that publishers did not encounter with traditional TV.
In fact, the unpredictability in viewership, especially in one-off live events like the recent Paul vs. Tyson boxing match, can lead to connectivity issues, buffering, and even platform crashes. This not only harms the viewer experience but can result in skeptical advertisers.
When it comes to live events and streaming, it’s guaranteed that engaged viewers will tune in for the action. But in order to successfully monetize their inventory, publishers need a tech partner that helps them minimize the challenges that can arise during these high-stakes, no fail events.
Here are three challenges publishers have conquered by partnering with FreeWheel:
1. Unpredictable viewership
Challenge
Accurately predicting viewership for live events remains a significant challenge for publishers. In fact, publishers inaccurately predict their viewership for live events 65% of the time, which can result in a loss of revenue due to monetization partners not being prepared to handle such an influx of viewers and not having enough demand lined up. With the fluctuation in viewership, publishers need their monetization partners to be able to withstand the pressure of high concurrent viewership during live programming.
How scaled ad decisioning helps publishers manage unexpected spikes in viewership
Live events are a high-stakes environment, which means publishers need to ensure they are working with the right partner, so they are better positioned to monetize every moment. Publishers need a technology partner that can scale its ad decisioning capacity during periods of high viewership, without sacrificing performance or revenue.
During a football game this fall, one publisher saw viewership 35% over what was expected. FreeWheel was able to ensure that these additional viewers did not impact performance, and the publisher was able to capture an additional 27% of revenue that would have been previously lost due to the sudden viewership spike.
2. Unpredictable creative readiness
Challenge
When a viewer sees slate, it means that something has gone wrong and research indicates slate has a negative impact on viewer perception. One of the main reasons a viewer sees slate is because there are not enough advertisements lined up waiting to be shown to viewers. With the viewer experience and maximizing revenue in mind, publishers want to introduce high-quality, programmatic demand without sacrificing the ability to control the quality of ads displayed on their platforms.
How creative management workflows help publishers better manage delivery
In most cases, publishers are unable to pre-approve and prepare programmatic creatives that come through PMPs (private marketplace deals). To solve for this, FreeWheel built out a direct creative management workflow that gives publishers three days on average to review, approve, and transcode programmatic creatives. By taking the unpredictability out of creative readiness, publishers can monetize inventory from the very first moment of the first ad break.
3. Unpredictable content (and how to make it advertiser-safe)
Challenge
Many advertisers exclude “news” from their campaigns due to a small percentage of inventory that could potentially not be considered brand-safe. But this practice can mean advertisers are missing out on tuned-in viewers as news is one of the highest-viewed genres on FAST channels. As a result, the programmatic monetization of news content and FAST channels can’t follow the same playbook as sports.
How contextual categorization allows publishers to tap into the value of news and FAST
Research found that relevant ads can lead to better outcomes for brands: relevant ads have a 2x higher unaided recall and 5x higher brand purchase intent so finding a partner that offers more flexible contextual categorization enables publishers to have more control over their inventory and get the most value from it.
FreeWheel enables publishers to precisely tag news content with contextual metadata, enriching bid requests with genre metadata 52% more often than the industry average. When publishers are able to tap into the full value of news content, they can enable more targeted and effective programmatic advertising and deliver greater outcomes to advertisers.
Programmatic Will Help Fuel Live’s Growth Across Streaming for Publishers and Advertisers Alike
Live events offer massive opportunities to publishers and advertisers alike. As content and advertiser spend continues to shift to streaming platforms, it’s expected that more players will get involved in order to reach the highly engaged viewers that tune in simultaneously. While live events on streaming can be incredibly complex and unpredictable, with the right tech partner and capabilities in place to navigate the challenges, both the buy and sell side can reap the benefits of live.
