Around the world, the television industry is experiencing a period of disruption and evolution unrivalled in its history. On the one hand, free-to-air networks are struggling to retain eyeballs and advertising dollars while on the other, OTT services such as Netflix and Amazon are investing in content and attracting audiences at a jaw-dropping pace.
Some industry watchers have labelled the current conditions 'peak television', pointing to the growing number of high-quality shows and increasing channels through which they can be consumed by viewers.
The trend is showing no sign of slowing. In 2016, Amazon tripled its spend on original shows while this year Netflix has committed to doubling the number of original scripted series it creates. By the end of the year, industry output could reach more than 500 scripted TV shows.
This unprecedented surge in television production brings both opportunities and challenges for not only broadcasters and producers but to advertising agencies involved in production as well. More quality content means there are far more opportunities for targeted, video ads which also means that video production volumes for those ads will increase.
Streamline workflows and improve collaboration
To meet these challenges and expand advertising opportunities, companies have come to the realisation that traditional production and distribution processes with disconnected systems, teams, and workflows cannot support this expected level of output and activity. This disconnection results in silos within the organisation that waste time, reduce communication, and increase costs and the risk of errors.
It’s now critical to remove long-standing silos and embrace emerging workflow technologies.
But how can companies managing advertising production do this? By developing tight integrations across the ecosystem through the data-driven automation of media logistics platforms.
Media logistics automation can improve communication and collaboration, and provide workflow visibility throughout the production process. It creates a 'single pane of glass' that lets everyone from production staff to account executives and even clients stay connected to each other and maintain a close watch on campaign materials as they are created and approved.
Automation can also streamline operations by replacing manual, repetitive, and mundane tasks with automated, business logic-driven actions. By providing the operator with the information and tools to execute those tasks more efficiently, companies can remove bottlenecks and decrease mistakes, speed output, and devote more time to developing and producing more ads.
Harness the power of artificial intelligence and data
Today, the process for inputting, capturing and curating metadata for videos is a laborious one. Having inaccurate metadata makes it harder for producers to locate a piece of video content readily, and may cause them to re-shoot footage.
Now, however, artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing the game. AI integrated with media logistics platforms can help automate the collection of metadata from videos by quickly analysing video material and recognising themes, subject matter and even individual faces. Using the metadata captured, systems can quickly locate video assets, recommend relevant programs to viewers, and serve targeted ads, based on the topic, personality or sentiment being featured in the video content.
The automation of metadata logging reduces manual work dramatically, saves time for the agencies, and makes archiving and searching for content much easier for everyone.
Data derived through automation is also critical for enabling companies to increase visibility, integrate operations, and report back to teams and clients. Using media logistics analytics tools, firms can gain operational insights on the average time a particular task or job took or the number of jobs that went over schedule. Teams can better understand how they can introduce efficiencies and reallocate tasks, to produce more ads, faster.
Reaching video production nirvana
In summary, there are four ways companies involved in video advertising production can reach nirvana through automation:
1. Streamline: Actively look for ways to streamline and integrate planning, production and distribution systems. Seek out opportunities to improve workflows by automating steps where possible so human errors can be reduced and output increased.
2. Collaborate: Create a collaborative platform where everyone can have visibility, assign tasks and gain access to materials for review and approval.
3. Harness AI: Make use of the rapidly evolving capabilities of AI tools to automate the collection of metadata and facilitate accurate search, recommendations and targeted ads.
4. Use data: Collecting meaningful data about the ideation, production and delivery process can help identify bottlenecks and facilitate remedial actions for increased efficiency and cost reduction.
The global video and OTT market will continue to expand. So will the demand for producing even more great advertising content at the lowest possible cost and in the shortest time frame. Automation, in whatever form it takes, promises to be a key factor in separating successful production companies and advertising agencies from the rest and guiding them to an idyllic state of business performance.
By Ooyala business development director Bea Alonso-Martinez