How Marketers Can Expand Their Brand With Live Streaming

By Dominic Wong, Client Service Manager, New Zealand at Magnite

Streaming is catching up in popularity to linear television in New Zealand – not only in the video-on-demand (VOD) space but also in arenas that were previously almost exclusively dominated by broadcast. As audiences increasingly turn to streaming, they engage even more with live programming such as news, events, reality shows, and sports, watching them in real-time.

In New Zealand, 80% of all users who stream video generally from a connected device watch at least one live streaming service — and this doesn’t just include Gen Z and millennials, but baby boomers as well. This demand is driving investment, particularly in live sports, where fans are streaming rugby, cricket, football, and beyond.

With a rapt audience at their fingertips, the opportunity is sky-high for live TV advertisers. Here are a few ways marketers can best engage with live-streaming audiences and expand their brand.

1. Reach more screens and audiences.

Live streaming presents the opportunity to reach more screens across different devices and engage with audiences across platforms. Particularly in sports, live streamers are more likely to watch multiple ad-supported services with an average of two sports apps. This provides a number of touchpoints for streaming and brands to interact with the consumer along the sales funnel. 

More viewing options also mean more creative opportunities to engage audiences in different settings. Households now sign up for an average of three streaming services — highly popular channels include Netflix, TVNZ, and Disney+ in New Zealand, each with their own verticals and ad opportunities. With broadcast-quality content, streaming offers a seamless viewing experience for viewers and a premium environment for brands across screens.

2. Make ad campaigns more actionable.

Streaming has an impressively broad reach. This has only been helped by the proliferation of smart TVs and streaming devices across New Zealand (77.6% of internet users in New Zealand use SVOD services to stream content). Unlike other formats, advertisers can target unique audiences on live TV. 

Live streaming audiences are highly actionable: live sports streamers, especially, are more likely to discover new products, remember ads, and make a purchase than traditional TV viewers. Research also found sports streamers are more responsive to advertising than traditional TV watchers, with many stating they often remember the ads seen (31%) and search for the product or service (39%) after the fact. 

3. Lean into live streaming’s addressability. 

There has never been a greater opportunity to connect with addressable audiences, measure engagement, and deliver relevant ads than today. With programmatic tools, streaming advertisers can reach audiences with more accuracy, connecting the right audience with the right creative at the right time. Streaming’s capacity to layer audience data, report, and execute individual impressions helps brands track performance and connect with underserved audiences to maximise revenue.

By leaning into live streaming’s granular, data-driven targeting, marketers can drive impact and ROI.

4. Win more control with real-time campaign optimisation. 

One major advantage of working in programmatic is performing in real-time. This is especially important with events such as sports, where advertisers can capitalise on peak viewing moments and prepare for upcoming ones. 

With programmatic’s ease and flexibility, marketers can monitor performance and boost or decrease budgets when there are spikes or dips in audience engagement. Marketers can also track the most impactful ad creatives and tailor messaging accordingly. 

Sports matches with close scores or that go into overtime may see higher viewership, presenting a golden opportunity for greater ROI that brands won’t want to miss. With live streaming, 56% of live sports streamers are likely to watch pre and post-game shows, allowing advertisers to reach consumers across end-to-end programming.

5. Achieve a big-screen viewing experience.

Broadcast audiences are primed for an uninterrupted, big-screen viewing experience, so naturally, streaming platforms want to bring the same seamless feel to digital – meaning high-quality video and fluid injection of ads into the content, with no lags in ad load.

To facilitate this, streaming broadcasters are engaging video technology companies like Brightcove and Amazon, who resolve issues with heavy ad loads and provide solutions for pushing content out to multiple devices in a more standard and streamlined way.

Server-side ad insertion (SSAI) technology assists with this by prefetching advertisements, enhancing ads’ quality to match the stream’s quality, and stitching the ads into the content as one piece of the video stream. This safeguards viewers from seeing the dreaded “spinning wheel.”

Ultimately, live streaming is an emerging channel in New Zealand that advertisers can’t afford to miss. While the big upfront spend associated with traditional TV once made TV inventory harder for smaller brands to advertise, streaming has a relatively lower entry point, unlocking inventory historically reserved for national advertisers to local buyers. For marketers keen on increasing their reach, engagement, and revenues, live streaming is a winning investment.