Advertising Consumer Goods and the OTT Advantage in Indonesia

Indonesia’s surge in over-the-top (OTT) popularity has prompted streaming players and advertisers to innovate new strategies that strike the right chord with consumers in a competitive space. Magnite’s APAC OTT research reported half of the population have increased their OTT usage during the pandemic, with 74% preferring ad-funded video content. 

Magnite’s OTT Factor Asia virtual event with WeTV & iflix, a regional leader in premium Asian content, discussed “Winning in the FMCG space with OTT”  with leaders from WeTV & iflix, Unilever and The Trade Desk exploring OTT opportunities in one of the largest industries contributing to Indonesia’s economic growth.   

Rise of OTT: New Opportunities 

Pandemic restrictions have ushered a shift to OTT and digital commerce platforms, expanding the pool of primarily female audiences that fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands typically reach. “Now you have new audiences and also new ways to engage with them, and these digital interactions open up avenues to generate and fulfill customer demand for products and services,” said Eka Sugiarto, Head of Media SEAA at Unilever. 

Brands can now access the engaged OTT audience, who often tune in for long form shows rather than short form entertainment.  “OTT viewers usually spend around 60 mins actively watching and this shows commitment. It’s not like other social platforms where they go for bite-sized content and if there’s something interesting they stay, otherwise they don’t,” said Mark L. Jackson, Head of Regional Sales SEA, WeTV & iflix. 

As mobile video streaming dominates, this further maximizes viewer engagement with a more personal experience at home, or on the go. “ With smartphones, it’s a very personal and engaging experience, they no longer stick to the prime 8 pm time belt, and people want to watch on the way to work or even in the office,” he added. 

Capturing the right audience 

Finding and fine tuning the FMCG brand audience persona is often a challenge compared to reaching users in more segmented verticals. “Sometimes it’s difficult to classify who the right audience is because most FMCG clients do mass targeting. Compared to other verticals such as banking where it is more segmented in size, and targeting can be narrowed to include certain economic class, luxury lifestyle or certain travel habits, this doesn’t happen in FMCG,” says  Kautsar Ikrami, Senior Manager Inventory Partnerships, The Trade Desk. 

The digitally savvy modern consumer who juggles multiple devices also makes it harder for advertisers to track the entire omni channel user journey, necessary for a holistic view of a customer’s path to conversion. “Getting insights such as the number of ad exposure before conversion, number of days before the action, and channel effectiveness in driving conversion gets more challenging,” added Kautsar. 

Unilever’s Eka also echoed the importance of finding the right audience at the right time. “The heart of the strategy stays consistent. What happens is how we get into these new touchpoints doing the right thing. There’s a lot of background work to ensure the right content appears to the right person with the best opportunity to form a relationship with your brand.”

The OTT Solution: Better Reach and Targeting 

Investments in OTT have placed a focus on reach and measurement for better advertiser outcomes. 

According to WeTV & iflix’s Mark, content forms the crux of their audience strategy to increase engagement, with plans to produce 20+ pieces of original content and acquire premium Asian movies from other regions. “Content is king. With OTT streaming services people come for one purpose and that is to watch. Festive is also a peak period for us where we launch religious series like Ustad Millennial during Ramadan, and we also have gaming content, which is something different, as we own PUBG, and younger audiences like our e-gaming content,” he said. 

Better targeting is also a key priority for WeTV & iflix to improve ad efficiency. “We are working quite a bit on aggregated data for advertisers so they can better target their audience with retargeting opportunities, ” said Mark, adding that they also work with third party verification vendors like IAS and MOAT to fulfill advertiser needs on targeting, viewability and measurement. 

On a wider level, The Trade Desk’s Kautsar also highlighted the importance for industry players to explore universal identity solutions as Google phases out third party cookies by 2023. 

OTT to drive bottom of funnel metrics

Beyond a reach building medium, publishers and brands both agree that OTT offers opportunities for bottom-of-the-funnel sales. At WeTV & iflix, this potentially involves seamless and shoppable ad experiences. 

“We want to use ad tech to engage with users instead of interrupting and we’re looking at a few ad units that will help engagement. We also look to work with eCommerce providers to look into the possibility of users shopping while watching content,” said WeTV & iflix’s Mark. 

“The ability to fulfill demand is there. New interactions could be made possible, such as creating the opportunity for people to act on what they want when they are interested right there, right then. There is an increasing level of convergence between media and commerce and shoppability solutions become something to dig into,” said Unilever’s Eka.

Link to event recording