Nothing to see here...

It's been more than a year since two top brand marketers publicly criticised the TV networks for bombarding BVOD viewers with the same ads over and over. But has anything changed since then, or is the problem getting worse?

If you're one of the many thousands who now stream your favourite free-to-air shows via BVOD, you've probably noticed that frustratingly you often see the same ads repeatedly. Sometimes, you might see the same ad 10 or 20 times in one program, or 50 times if you binge watch a whole season. This can be annoying, boring and even damaging for the brands that are paying for these ads.

But why is this still happening, and who is responsible? Only a fraction of BVOD ads are served by the broadcasters so is it really them failing to manage the ad inventory and frequency? What about agencies or trading desks, are the programmatic tools that deliver the bulk of BVOD ads not working properly or could it be a case of human error and incorrect settings? And finally what role do advertisers themselves play? Are they not demanding enough transparency and accountability from their BVOD partners?

The true story

To investigate further we set up a panel of BVOD viewers and used our ICR technology to track every ad they saw, whether it was bought directly from the broadcaster, through an agency trading desk, or via a programmatic partner. We watched and monitored hundreds of hours of BVOD content over three months and the results were shocking.

We found that many brands had their ads on high repetition, reaching the same person way too many times in a single session and well over 20 times per week. The problem generally affected larger advertisers with bigger budgets, including major Auto, FMCG and sports betting brands, but smaller advertisers we also impacted. 

When we contacted those brands with our observations with the intention to investigate further, most had a similar response: "We checked, and our reporting shows no frequency problem." Even though we had solid evidence and personal experience, there was a reluctance to accept that any sort of problem existed. “We apply frequency caps to all our activity, and the delivery reports showed nothing out of the ordinary”.

So, what's going on?  Well, there are some technical challenges that make frequency management difficult in BVOD, but the main reason why nothing is changing seems to be because no one is admitting that there is even a problem.  And as long as advertisers believe that, nothing is likely to change.

The reports that brands get from their BVOD partners usually show an average frequency, which is calculated by dividing total impressions by total reach. This number is usually around 1.2-1.4, which looks fine. But this number doesn't tell you anything about how the frequency is distributed among different viewers. Most might see an ad once, some might see it 50 times.

In traditional media, mistakes happen all the time, but they are monitored and compensated. If an ad runs too many times or not enough times, there is a system of checks and balances that ensures that the advertiser gets what they paid for, or gets some money back. The cost of the mistake is shared by the advertiser, the agency and the publisher.

But in programmatic media and BVOD, this doesn't seem to happen. The transactional nature of the ecosystem means that any mistake can be traced back to one party, and that party would have to pay for it. So no one wants to admit that they made a mistake or that they forgot to apply a frequency cap or that they used the wrong setting in their DSP. Everyone claims to be perfect, all of the time.

The only ones who suffer from this are the viewers and the advertisers. The viewers get a poor ad experience that makes them want to skip or block ads. The advertisers waste their money and damage their brand reputation by annoying their potential customers. The agencies, tech providers and publishers get away with delivering BVOD campaigns without any real accountability.

Don't settle for average

So, who can fix this problem? Well, let’s first acknowledge that it's an industry-wide issue, but ultimately, it's down to advertisers to ensure that the right checks and balances are in place. Specifically, they need to ask for a frequency report showing impression volume by frequency band. Definitely don’t settle for any average frequency figure.

But fundamentally advertisers need to apply the same level of scrutiny and analysis to BVOD as they do to traditional channels. They need to remember that even in programmatic trading, humans are still involved and humans make mistakes.

The good thing is that those mistakes can be fixed. Remember those brands we contacted? After investigating and responding that their campaigns did not have a problem with frequency, indeed the repeating ads stopped.