Page 46 - AdNews April 2020

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“It’s a huge opportunity in terms of changing the perception of Facebook from just having user-generated content, to more of a premium space. I think that’s exciting in general.”
As well as helping brand safety concerns, Menezes says better quality programs add a new layer to video advertising.
“TV does an outstanding job in terms of driving awareness, but where Facebook can start to play a bigger role is into some other elements including how do you inf luence consideration, how do you drive preference, how do you drive affinity, because there’s so much more to the platform.
“If you drive broadcast-based components, and quality and brand integration as part of these elements, I feel like it plays such a good complementative role to your TV campaign. There’s absolutely a huge oppor- tunity outside of brand safety building across the key elements around consideration, prefer- ence and affinity.”
The deals between Facebook and media owners came just as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) was preparing its final report on its Digital Platforms Inquiry, rais- ing questions about the social media giant’s motivations. But, alongside its relationship with news media businesses, improv- ing its overall video ecosystem across its apps has been impor- tant for Facebook.
Andrew Hunter, Facebook’s news partnerships lead for Australia and New Zealand, says the deals allowed a relationship with media owners and improved the quality of content.
“It protects the appetite of the audiences in Watch for that type of video, but also an oppor- tunity for us to provide some direct revenue in the form of minimum guarantee back to the publishers and broadcasters,” Hunter says. “It’s also about cre- ating an environment where video is engaging audiences and drawing in audiences so that brands can run their advertising in a place where the audiences are engaged with the video.”
“It’s a huge opportunity in terms of changing the perception
of Facebook
from just having user-generated content, to more of a premium space. I think that’s exciting in general.”
Ryan Menezes, Starcom head of digital and commerce
Media owners have had varied success with News in Watch. Facebook sees that as measured by quality of engagement, as well as reach.
“We’re looking at not just the viewership, but the engagement and the number of one-minute views of the videos that have been con- sumed as well, because it’s really important that with these videos that we are starting to grow in that ecosystem as well,” Hunter says.
“At the one minute mark an in-stream ad can appear. So, it’s really important that we’re growing the inventory of those one-minute ads, not just so that we can create a sustainable video ecosystem for our publishers, but also so that it’s a great place for brands to be as well.”
While no numbers have been released, Hunter says both Watch view- ers and engagement have increased, driving ads and impressions.
“Because it’s a place where audiences are spending longer with high quality news and other types of video content, it is a place that is generating more ad revenue from high quality advertisers as well.”
Starcom’s Menezes says he’s also seeing interest from brands. “The powerful thing with Facebook is at the end of the day, you’ve got a platform that’s grabbing the most reach and also the fact that you can refine your messaging and personalise,” he says. “So the conversations that we’re having is absolutely on an investment per- spective. Brands will want to invest to be part of this.
“Brands that have also been a little bit more cautious in the past, based on some of the brand safety challenges, were actually coming to have the right conversation and to also say, ‘okay, now we feel like this