Netflix CEO Reed Hastings once claimed the streaming giant’s biggest competitor was sleep. With more and more competition for viewer attention in the crowded arena of content streaming, finding more viewing hours in the day would undoubtedly benefit all video platforms.
The new emerging field of in-car content streaming provides an exciting route to increasing viewing hours or simply create new use cases. From today’s Uber journeys to other travel methods such as ride-sharing and future autonomous driving, car users will have more time on their hands to watch content. This trend towards in-car viewing is set to coincide with a boom in ad-based OTT offerings, with Digital TV Research forecasting that Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD) expenditure will double by 2025.
Such AVOD predictions are based partly on the fact that OTT advertising has proved incredibly resilient over the last few months at a time when ad budgets in other sectors have been slashed. Roku, Hulu, Peacock, Pluto TV and Tubi all grew their ad revenues by almost a third in Q2. Meanwhile, initiatives such as Hulu’s Pause Ads are proving incredibly successful, with the U.S. streaming service reporting over a billion ad-supported pauses per month.
In-car entertainment offers a significant opportunity for streaming services and brands alike for a new use case that can create reach and get the attentive audience that advertiser’s desire. Technology is also stepping up to provide seamless and powerful new content experiences – covered further in a blog by my colleague Paul Krammling, which you can read here.
The advertising industry needs new opportunities like this. Not just because of the impact of Covid-19, but also because of GDPR and similar legislation being implemented across the world. With this contributing to the death of the cookie, brands need new ways to engage relevant audiences. Many believe that contextual advertising could add significant value. As described by Steffen Svartberg at adtech specialist Cavai: “Consumers now expect experience and it is vital that the industry pivots how they deliver marketing messages to provide interactive, contextually relevant experience creative.”
Ride-sharing services will enable unique new contextual opportunities based on the destination of the traveller. Imagine the value to a retailer if they knew a shopper is on the way to their high street.
ACCESS Europe is well placed to propel automotive OEMs and Tier 1s as well as content providers towards these valuable new opportunities due to the depth of its experience in the four key industries of software, content, advertising and automotive. With a long history in embedded browser development, ACCESS software has been installed in over 1.5 billion devices around the world. Its TV Everywhere solutions serve over 100 million viewers and have been integrated with leading adtech vendors to enable dynamic ad insertion (for pre, mid and/or post-roll) with full personalisation enabled.
This experience is encapsulated in ACCESS Twine™ for Car (Twine4Car), a branded in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system that allows OEMs and Tier 1s to retain control of the all-important user relationship (and data) that is so important to leveraging the value of advertising. And it supports the latest VAST 4.0 and VMAP standards for video advertising.
Whether through ride sharing or driving, the connected car will usher in a wealth of opportunities for content providers and advertisers who are eager to find new audiences and deliver new contextual creatives. OEMs must ensure they have the necessary tools to provide the advertising experience to car users that brands need, while controlling the data that makes contextual advertising so valuable.
If you would like to know more about how Twine4Car enables advertising in the car then please visit the ACCESS Europe website or you can get in get in touch with me directly through LinkedIn.
