Co-Viewing — I Want it All!
Author: John Vilade, Head of Sales, Premion.
Growing up I learned a valuable life lesson of exploring the full value of a purchase — through music. I purchased Queen’s “We Are the Champions” single 45 RPM record. Alone, it was a truly epic rock song that delivered. However, had I not turned the record over, I would have missed the perfect complement to that song and the full value of the purchase. Queen had included another heralded rock anthem “We Will Rock You” on the B side — and the release was dubbed a Double A Single.
Similarly, when it comes to CTV advertising, we should also consider the full value of the buy — specifically co-viewing, which refers to multiple viewers watching television together. In other words, we need to always count the total audience — both the A and B side. For decades, Viewers Per Viewing Household (VPVH) has been used to determine audience viewership in linear TV. We’re now seeing the emergence of counting co-viewership in CTV, which provides valuable insights into total CTV audience reach in a like-for-like comparison to linear TV that’s also beneficial for cross-platform buys.
Additionally, consider the value-add benefits of co-viewing and its impact on the effective CPM (eCPM) and engagement. Advertisers should consider the eCPM as the “true value” of the ad units delivered and streaming audiences should be measured in their totality.
More importantly, premium content and co-viewing go hand-in-hand. What’s more, the findings from a recent TVision co-viewing study found that Premion inventory exceeded industry benchmarks for co-viewing (+ 19% lift) and capturing viewer attention (+3.5% lift) — reinforcing the value of prioritizing premium CTV content for advertisers. Additionally, Premion placed inventory captured more attention than the CTV norm in nearly every hour of the day (23 of 24 hours) and this difference is especially notable in Prime and Overnight dayparts, providing additional value to advertisers.
Yan Liu, CEO of TVision said, “CTV advertisers want to know how many people are streaming content together and who’s paying attention, and our studies show that attention is closely correlated with both aided awareness and ad recall — two fundamental brand metrics. Premion scored high in attention and views per viewer household which validates the power of premium content. This maximizes value for brands by getting the ads in front of a larger audience without them having to increase ad spending.”
Advertisers are focused on making their ad dollars work harder and smarter — and co-viewing is a valuable metric that further proves the efficacy of their ad spend. Every impression counts — so you need to count every impression. And to quote the great Freddie Mercury, “I want it all!”
Read more on MediaPost here.
