Magnite Tells Adland To Not Miss The Boat With FAST At Advertising Week

Juliette Stead (pictured), SVP, head of JAPAC at adtech firm Magnite, told audiences at Advertising Week APAC that streaming outperforms traditional TV and social media on some metrics.

“In every instance, we’re seeing that ad-supported content is very much leading the way when it comes to streaming services. People are trying to simplify their lives, cut down on ever-increasing subscription costs and create something that’s a lot more manageable, a lot more palatable, a lot more accessible,” said Stead.

“We’re seeing a very positive story around consumption trends growing and essentially becoming a new version of TV. This is just the new TV. There’s no turning around now, it’s all moving in that direction.”

Stead’s assertion was based on new research from the firm that showed that 65 per cent of viewers are choosing to watch free ad-supported TV (FAST) services — compared to 73 per cent watching regular old linear. What’s more, 84 per cent of Australians watch streaming services compared to poms and Americans — 82 per cent and 81 per cent, respectively.

“It’s a great opportunity for brands and it’s really important to let that [audience size] sink in, particularly when there’s so much constant debate around measurement,” said Stead.

Plus, Magnite’s “Streaming TV’s New Era” research showed that 55 per cent of current non-streamers are planning to start watching made available through ad-supported systems.

According to Stead, that growing audience is watching a lot of content.

“People are watching at least 30 minutes of content every time they go to a streaming service. And, that’s every session, we found that on average, if you look at a week’s worth of consumption, that pans out to about two hours per day on average per person,” she explained.

But, per Magnite’s research, the streaming audience is far more engaged than they typically are when consuming content through other channels.

“It’s a very different version of engagement when you’re watching full-length TV content through an internet connection versus when you’re doing something else online such as going to social media or social video environments,” Stead told the audience.

“We found that the vast majority — 85 per cent — of the audience told us that they spend a lot of time in social media environments just scrolling through content.”

Citing research from Amplified Intelligence, Stead said that “If you’ve got audiences scrolling through your content they are exposed to ads but forgetting those ads very quickly.”

“Ad recall is significantly increased through putting your ads in front of streamed content. It just shows that people’s consumption behaviours are very different depending on the content that they’re consuming and it’s really important to bear that in mind when you’re deciding where to put your money,” she added.

Magnite, of course, is a programmatic firm and it is in the business of getting ads into streaming content. But, with a growing audience and the benefit of strong first-party data collection, FAST might fast become a very big piece of the Australian content landscape.

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