Ad Fatigue is Deterring Viewers; What's to Be Done?

The performance of online ads should be considered a valuable business metric as analytics firms say Quality of Experience, 不满足, 是新国王吗?.

We all know online video content is subject to buffering and delivery issues but should that also include the ads? While VOD and live event programming is routinely passed under the microscope of realtime network and storage resource planning, AD回放的技术性能经常被掩盖. 这是一个明显的差距，分析提供商正在引起人们的注意.

"Publishers have relied on decades-old models for selection and placement of ads based on methods which worked for linear broadcast television, 但这些都是坏的，不适合网络电视,Keith Zubchevich说, 视频优化公司Conviva的首席战略官. "There is data available today which enables online 出版商 to monitor the impact of ads on viewer behaviour but no one is using it. 他们只是猜测. 出版商从来没有这样想过，也从来没有看到过对这些数据的需求. If an operator continues to overload with commercials when the data is telling them that this is adverse to a viewer's experience they will go out of business."

ARRIS EMEA云解决方案副总裁Andy Hooper表示:“人们对广告的反应并不十分了解. "If I'm a customer of an online video site and I have to watch an ad to get to the content perhaps I can click away after 5 seconds or perhaps I have to watch the whole roll. Either kind of strategy will deter some people, but service providers are not fully aware of this. 在另一个例子中, 当我在电视服务提供商的应用程序上播放流媒体时, 我有时会看到冻结的广告，让我无法看到内容. 这是一个很大的问题，它反映在服务提供商身上, yet too often the service provider does not know enough about the totality of the customer experience to do anything about it."

Conviva says its studies have shown as much as a 58% viewer churn based on poor online ad experiences. 结合相对简单的在线广告投放目标, 在线广告的经验问题导致广告破损, 制造商品, 潜在的欺诈行为, 失去了AD库存的可用性, 更不用说观众对他的好感也会减少, 该公司表示.

“广告对观众体验的影响是巨大的，”Zubchevich说. "If I watch a show and it's riddled with ads I'm getting ad fatigue and I'm beginning to look for content elsewhere. 服务提供商下一步要做的就是监控广告的影响."

并非巧合的是, Conviva is launching an 广告的见解 product that essentially expands the capabilities of its video playback experience monitoring. 它目前处于测试阶段，将于4月底发布.

广告的见解, 公司解释道, enables 出版商 to run a more profitable streaming advertising business by optimizing ad strategies by giving them a real-time look at how ad placement, 持续时间, 频率与视频参与度相关. 这, 它说, provides companies with the right tools to reduce ad fatigue and viewer churn while increasing revenues.

Edgeware产品副总裁Johan Bolin表示:“服务提供商在这方面可以做得更多. “今天, very little is being done partly due to data being sourced from two different parts of the business. There is data from the ad insertion server about the actions of customers interacting with an ad, 以及来自AD流媒体服务器的关于该AD的渲染的数据. 有必要对这些数据进行交叉验证. As ad personalisation (targeting) grows I would assume service providers would see these reports as much more of a requirement."

All of this plays into a wider argument that the customer's experience with a service provider now spans multiple traditional data silos. 这范围从宽带呼叫中心到电视呼叫中心, across to operational teams examining video player and session data to digital marketing teams interrogating intent to purchase. 它可能还包括新兴的家庭网络管理领域.

Hooper说:“服务提供商在任何地方都没有达到足够的规模。. “客户体验管理跨越了组织边界. Some service providers are addressing this by installing a chief digital officer or customer experience executive, 即使在董事会层面, 但他们需要做得更多."

While service providers have tracked and reacted to technical Quality of Service (QoS) issues for some time, 高管们指出了跟踪用户端到端体验质量的趋势.

在其 OTT: Beyond Entertainment Survey 11月出版, Conviva concluded that one in five viewers will abandon poor experiences immediately and that 90% of viewers choose services that deliver a superior experience.

这使得Zubchevich认为内容不再是王道. "For the first time you can forget quality of content as being the single most valuable metric,他说. “你放到网上的任何东西都必须进行营销和监测，以获得体验. 它肯定比电视好看."

当然，出版商仍然关心内容的质量. Zubchevich's contention is that with so many sources to which a consumer can turn to get the same content, 决定性因素将是他们从提供服务的网站获得的体验.

“头号货币是QoE，”他表示. "We are just starting to see operators look at marketing the experience of viewing as important as the content itself. 这是他们过去从未收集过的东西，这是一个根本性的转变."

“我们需要重新定义什么是QoS. QoS意味着诸如“流是否可用”之类的基本问题?'， '它是否大部分时间都可用?，“我能不能基本上不受干扰地看??’”祖布切维奇说. “QoE采取零容忍的方式来启动流. QoE还与分辨率有关. If I watch a HD or UHD TV broadcast and move to an IP-based provider I am not expecting a poor experience in comparison. What used to be acceptable is no longer acceptable and failure to address buffering or bitrrate issues in that moment means you lose the consumer.

“我们所看到的一切都告诉我们，QoE对用户粘性有着非常直接和可量化的影响, and engagement subsequently has a very direct correlation to the financial stability of the service."

Netflix and other pure-play streamers have built their business on a data-centric strategy and are not hide-bound by the legacy of separate technical and consumer facing parts of the business which telco and satellite pay TV providers face.

尽管如此, ARRIS的Hooper争辩道, '"the mantra 'content is king' has been a fallback excuse for some service providers for not gettting this right. As the market fragments into different content sources I think you'll find that consumers will gravitate over time to the site where they're having least friction. That means pay TV doesn't just have their business threatened by OTT but by new data pipes which can provide a greater customer experience journey through the content lifecycle. 独家内容交易是一种防御机制. Enabling a better customer experience will deliver more positive brand benefits in the longer term."