Media industry thinktank, the Video Futures Collective (VFC), have added Amazon to its membership, as announced at Foxtel Media’s 2025 Upfronts.
Video Futures Collective members now includes Amazon Advertising, Disney Advertising, Foxtel Media, Samsung Ads, SBS on Demand, Vevo and YouTube.
Foxtel Media's director of customer engagement, Toby Dewar, who is also a member of the VFC steering committee, said the VFC was created when Foxtel realised there was a gap in representation for a premium video businesses.
"We are delighted to welcome Amazon onboard as we level-up just eight months after launching in April this year," he said.
"The addition of Amazon means that the group counts another of Australia’s most popular streaming services amongst its members. We’re also excited to unveil two new projects supported by our members, with the goal of supporting the entire industry as it evolves to take advantage of the premium video revolution."
Foxtel Media also launched two industry research projects to investigate the impact of premium digital video advertising.
In partnership with BeatGrid, MAGNA Global and Wesfarmers (whose brands include Kmart, Officeworks, OnePass, Target), the first research project will investigate the effectiveness of advertising in the premium video market across media, marketing, and business outcomes.
Using BeatGrid’s proprietary Audio Content Recognition (ACR) technology and passive metering panel, this project will measure the impact of video advertising on key business and marketing objectives, starting with Wesfarmers in the retail category.
It will evaluate the effectiveness of cross-screen advertising by accurately measuring reach, frequency, incrementality and brand lift across a mix of VFC member platforms. It will also assess the impact of advertising on key business metrics such as in-store traffic.
MAGNA's national MD Lucy Formosa Morgan said understanding the effectiveness of video advertising in today’s fragmented media environment is a challenge for all brands.
"As an industry, we need to work together to best understand how we can provide value to our organisations from optimising the media mix, and to prove how marketing is playing a key role in adding business value," she said.
"We look forward to collaborating with the VFC on this important research project to help the industry move forward.”
The VFC is also engaging Amplified Intelligence, in partnership with OMG, to undertake the largest ever Australian study into attention and context amplification for video streaming.
The study will explore high attention, low clutter environments to establish the value and impact of premium content. It will look at three areas of measurement: attention metrics (active, passive & non-attention); attention drivers (device, channel, program, daypart and ad length); and attention amplifiers (ad context and demographics).
The project will explore the power of context in television to better understand the link between people’s engagement with video content and how that effects the advertising served alongside that content. It will also help to build the foundation for common industry metrics around attention.
Amplified Intelligence founder and CEO Karen Nelson-Field said attention is the gateway for an advertiser to achieve an outcome from their media investment.
"This project will be the most extensive research undertaken in Australia to establish how the engagement from must-watch content translates to attention in ad experiences," she said.
"It will review the significant value content plays in this equation – and evaluate the difference that attention makes to brands.”
OMG Australia chief investment officer Kristiaan Kroon said the white noise created by the oversupply of advertising in Australia is having an ongoing impact on effectiveness for all brands.
"Attention signals are key in understanding this and optimising media to drive improved outcomes for our clients," he said.
"Globally and locally OMG is at the forefront of the impact attention has on media selection and we are proud to be a partner in this research study, which aims to deliver insights that will help the entire industry make video advertising more effective and impactful."
The results from the two research projects are expected in the first quarter of 2025.
Dewar said at the start of this year, Foxtel Media asked brands and agencies what mattered most for them in the video marketplace, and what an organisation like the VFC could do to move the industry forward.
"The feedback was clear and consistent: brands know there is an opportunity to invest more in video, but need the proof, tools and support to get there," he said.
"These projects exist to help to provide the support the industry needs to take advantage of the future of video.”
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