Dove and McDonald’s signed on as CTV’s new online video streaming sponsors, integrating their brands within the pages featuring the network’s top programs. Both campaigns, which launched last week and will run through the spring, use new customized digital sponsorship opps that include synchronizing big-box ads with the video player. ‘I think that we’re seeing greater comfort and familiarity [online] from advertisers,’ says Stephan Argent, CTV’s VP digital media.
With media buys handled by OMD Canada, McDonald’s brand and colour scheme is prominently displayed on the pages for shows like Lost, with links to the fast food chain’s website.
The Dove Go Fresh line, whose buys were handled by PHD Canada, is present on both pre-roll and banner ads on the Gossip Girl page, and Dove is also a streaming sponsor for Grey’s Anatomy.
With a new video player, which launched last fall but rolled out in phases, key enhancements have occurred: streaming is now available across multiple browsers and in full-screen mode, and social bookmarking and a scrubbing option that allows viewers to scroll through an episode have also been introduced.
‘We’ve been able to enhance our analytics capability internally for our advertisers,’ Argent tells MiC, explaining that the digital team can now provide more detailed information regarding unique visitors, time spent on the site and the number of streams that are played. ‘We’re always open to customizing brands into pages and players, and we’re open to any ideas or new opportunities that are out there that will help engage the online audience.’ While each show has its own target demo, CTV digital viewers tend to skew female (24 to 55) and young (12 to 24), he adds.
With so many customization techniques for advertising, a standardization of online branding tactics is on the horizon in the near future. ‘We’re looking at ways to effectively monetize online content,’ says Argent. ‘We’ll see, in coming months, the evolution of new ad units that are really going to leverage the medium better than we do already.’
In 2008, CTV had 337 million total video streams for its online network, 58 million of which were on CTV.ca, according to HBX and Omniture analytics.
