2020 Flashback: Innovative contextual strategies for impactful OTT campaigns

While content is the key to success, the creative strategy is even more effective when it is contextual. It makes the message more identifiable and relevant to the audience. That’s what the last and final chapter, 5, of 2020 Flashback by Hotstar Marketing Platform delves into – innovative contextual strategy.

Contextual advertising and targeting made a huge mark last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. It’s widely expected to get even bigger this year.

Take the case of the United Spirits Limited campaign during the Dream11 Indian Premier League 2020.

USL leveraged the entire platform across advertising formats, to salute India’s COVID warriors – health professionals battling the virus and saving lives. For this, USL deployed a multitude of creatives to reduce creative fatigue.

The result: a brand message and sentiment that percolated to every household. In turn, this resulted in a ~6% click-through rate (CTR) for billboards – well above the average performance of campaigns.

Meanwhile, Kerala-headquartered business house Kitex leveraged the power of regional communication and targeting through its campaign on Disney+ Hotstar. The brand focused only on its home state while deploying the platform’s web view/carousel ad format.

This strategy worked very well for Kitex; Disney+ Hotstar’s unmatched ability to offer sharp regional targeting was exactly what Kitex sought. The result: it achieved 10X the platform average through the carousel/webview ad format in terms of CTR.

As is evident, the context made all the difference to the campaigns. Disney+ Hotstar offers options not just in terms of ad formats and partnerships, which earlier blogs detailed, but also a contextual relevance. This is unmatched across the OTT space and makes the platform invaluable to any marketing effort.