The Advertisers With Strong Affinity On Netflix, Disney+ & HBO Max Programs

With upfront presentations occurring this month, marketers will have the opportunity to negotiate advertising time on Disney+ and Netflix. Both SVO
VO
D providers announced an ad supported tier will become available by year end. Disney+ and Netflix join HBO Max which launched an ad supported version last June as well as Peacock, Paramount+, Hulu and others. There is the possibility that in the months ahead Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video may soon open its doors to Madison Avenue.

To find out what brands have an affinity with selected streaming programs and their audiences, Diesel Labs, a content intelligence company using social media and other sources provided a few insights. Diesel Labs measured the audience and percentage of brand engagement for several streaming programs, many of them to be available for sponsorships and/or ad messages this year.

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Diesel Labs points out that streaming platforms know which accounts are watching programming, but not necessarily which people. As password sharing has become a commonplace practice, it’s unclear as to how many different individuals are sharing an account or even a single profile. This complicates deriving common planning metrics like demographics and psychographics at the user level. And thus, tying viewers to brand preferences and engagement in support of effective ad placements is even harder.

“Given how fast ad-tiers and ad-formats are changing across SVOD, it’s essential to be able to effectively match existing media plans and audience targets into these new and evolving spaces,” says Anjali Midha, CEO of Diesel Labs. Their company is working to address this challenge, tapping into the rich field of user-level engagement across all the major social and video platforms in order to surface how brand audiences intersect with the entire media landscape.

· The audience engagement profile of Obi-wan Kenobi, set to premiere on Disney+ on May 27 skews toward young males. Diesel Labs reports 65% of the audience of male and 57% is under the age of 25. Audience engagement is high with gaming, many of which are soon to be released that are based on successful movie franchises. These include Gotham Nights, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Hogwarts Legacy and God of War Ragnarök.

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· The audience engagement for Formula 1: Drive to Survive which has been streaming on Netflix for four seasons skews toward males (68%) with 66% of the audience above the age of 24. Viewers have shown an affinity for two product categories; imported automobiles and beer. Among the popular car models are Mercedes-Benz, Mazda and Volkswagen. Looking at beer both Guinness and Bud Light Selzer over indexed with viewers.

· Pachinko was just renewed for a second season on Apple TV+. Based on a bestselling historical novel, the audience skewed female (59%) with 47% of the viewers under the age of 25. Looking at product categories, technology and service brands scored high. Among the top brands were Squarespace, Substack, FireTV, Slack and Seamless.

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· Euphoria will be returning for a third season on HBO and HBO Max perhaps as soon as next year. The audience profile is 59% female with 60% of the audience under the age of 25. Beauty products such as Fenty Beauty, KVD Beauty, Make Up Forever, Covergirl and Neutrogena are among the more engaging brands for viewers.

· The Book of Boba Fett, a space western series based on Star Wars debuted on Disney+ last December. Viewers had a strong affinity toward non-alcoholic beverages including coffee (Folgers, Maxwell House) and soft drinks (Coke Zero, Ocean Spray and Mountain Dew).

“These SVOD, AVOD and CTV environments are much more flexible than traditional linear TV, which means having real-time insight into what your target consumers are watching and looking forward to can be a huge asset in the planning process,” asserts Midha.

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Looking at it from the perspective of brands, Diesel Labs found the upcoming streaming programs with the highest engagement for Old Navy include Fast Color on Amazon Prime, a reboot of True Blood and Velma on HBO Max and on Netflix, Beef and Dated and Related.

For Pampers among the ad supported streaming programs expected in 2022 and 2023 include Uglies and Unfrosted on Netflix, Tiana on Disney+ and on HBO Max a reboot of Degrassi and Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai.

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The decision to create an ad supported tier by Netflix, Disney+ and potentially others come at a time when advertisers are investing more of their budgets on AVOD platforms. According to MoffettNathanson ad dollars for AVOD in first quarter 2022 reached $1.9 billion, a year-over-year increase of 63%. Driving the growth was Peacock, which had an increase of 420% led by the Beijing Olympics. Hulu garnered the highest amount of AVOD ad revenue with $877 million (+25%).

Helping to increase ad dollars are more viewers. According to eMarketer, the U.S. audience for AVOD will total 140.1 million this year and is projected to increase to 171.5 million in 2026 reaching nearly half of the population.

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Consumers are also willing to accept ads on streaming video platforms for a lower cost or no subscriber fee. A study from Hub Research found 41% of respondents said they favor watching TV at no cost and see ads. While 33% would pay a premium rate for ad free content. Another 26% answered they would be willing to pay for a streaming service that shows some ads.