By Loop Media CEO Jon Niermann
Shortly before the pandemic hit the U.S. in early 2020, video streaming was gaining traction and increasing in popularity in Out-of-Home (OOH) venues and public areas, including restaurants, nail salons, and waiting rooms across the country. From news headlines in airports, to music videos at bars, to drone footage in waiting rooms - a newer way of engaging consumers with all forms of targeted, curated content was taking root everywhere. And not just on individual devices, but any public screen. And then, overnight, everything shut down.
Streaming services took off while people across the globe were confined to their homes with very few options left for entertainment. Box office movies moved in-home. Cable, satellite and pre-chosen content line-up offerings were losing favor to those services that allowed viewers to customize line-ups and viewing choices. In a very short period of time, American households continued to flip from subscribing to cable or satellite services to join multiple streaming services - both subscription and free.
When businesses began to reopen, the same demand for curated content expanded to public venues to better reach these audiences and connect with patrons. The past 18 months are now starting to show the results of these changes by business owners and executives, and the new landscape for OOH screens is ripe for the streaming world.
The primary consumer streaming services are represented by the juggernaut subscription-based video on demand (SVOD) services like Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, Apple and Hulu, as well as, the free advertising-based streaming TV (FAST) services like Roku, Pluto, Fubo, Samsung Plus, Vizio and a myriad of others.
All video streaming has significantly grown in the last couple of years and is expected to continue to amass interest from consumers with premium content and award-winning entertainment. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global video streaming market is projected to exceed $800 billion in 2027, compared to the $340 billion as of 2019. Many factors contribute to this larger market value including consumer demand, increased access to varied content, increased content production rates, etc.
When looking at OOH advertising in the United States, this sector alone is expected to increase from $6.35 billion in 2020 to $12.1 billion in 2025, according to Statista. Advertisers are already seeing massive growth in advertising efforts across sectors in a post-pandemic world. The only question is where to put those marketing dollars: traditional advertising (i.e. commercials) or new, innovative campaigns (i.e. streaming services, social media, etc.). Clearly the current and future media mix is shifting to include much more of the latter.
Consumer cord-cutting coincided with better content provided by the bigger streaming services. That was led by the boom of billions of dollars being poured into in-house productions from major streaming production studios, met with significant credibility in the form of awards such as Oscars and Emmys. Films like Manchester by the Sea, The Salesman, and The White Helmets and TV shows such as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black were the first of their kind to receive such accolades and become household names because of it.
Following Disney's announcement of Disney+ launch in 2019, consumers were signaled to a massive change in successful, niche streaming applications and markets.
Delighting Consumers When Not On Their Couches
But the thing is this - these are awesome services and programs for home; however, nobody can really watch individual streaming programs while sitting in a bar or restaurant. The experience just doesn’t work that way. And the major services either didn’t think about or care enough about specific content that would work for OOH, thus leaving a massive green field untouched for reaching consumers when they are away from their homes.
Think about it, when there isn’t a game on cable or satellite, which is a majority of the week, those venues are left at the mercy of showing what is being programmed by others on all of their screens.
Keep in mind that OOH screens usually don’t have audio because there are multiple shows on multiple screens all at once while music is being played overhead. It’s no fun when you are out for a good time trying to read Wolf Blitzer's lips or feeling like you are getting dressed down by a giant three-foot version of Judge Judy while enjoying a burger and beer.
Empowering all public venues with the opportunity to take control of all screens with their own customized content solves the problem. Everyone likes music, so music videos and matching audio easily fits any venue. Couple those music videos with other screens showing fun short-form content like viral videos, travel or action footage from drones or GoPro type cameras, you finally have a streaming solution that works for OOH. No two venues are the same, thanks to the ability to program what fits their vibe the best.
Streaming content has continued to increase (74% in 2019, 80% in 2020 and 82% in 2021) in popularity at home and is now taking off nationally in public venues as small as a pub or tattoo parlor to as large as a university campus, airport or stadium.
Many businesses are still trying to climb out of a deep hole caused by the prolonged loss of in-person consumers, so managing costs is important. Keeping the content free for businesses is a new idea that is just becoming hugely popular as more and more companies learn (many for the first time!) that this is an option available to them.
Another benefit is that when you are watching screens in public: consumers are already used to commercials, so the AVOD model works in an unobtrusive way, unlike at home when everyone’s mission is to avoid commercials. These commercials allow businesses to have the content for free, and it gives brands and advertisers a tremendous chance to target their messages.
Advertisers are seeing these trends and capitalizing on this specialized content to reach their target audiences and appeal to them even more than ever before. Following the pandemic, content demands remain high, solidifying streaming as a significant part of our everyday lives inside and outside the home. One thing remains certain: staying in touch with entertainment that we choose to see, and when we choose to see it, has become entrenched in our society, and consuming that information through devices, whether at home or OOH, will not go away.
Jon Niermann
ABOUT JON NIERMANN
With over 30 years of media and technology industry experience working with teams at both the corporate and startup level, he is uniquely and consistently able to bring vision, expertise and innovation to every endeavor. Niermann’s 15 years with The Walt Disney Company saw his rise from a marketing representative for the Disney Channel to Managing Director & President, Walt Disney Asia, where he managed teams and offices over 16 countries and oversaw the fastest growing sector of Disney’s global empire. Following a successful run with Disney, Niermann spent seven years as President, Electronic Arts Asia, where he helped convert the company’s business from a packaged goods to digital model.
During his time with EA Asia, his team created the company’s first mobile games business as well as their first online gaming platform with FIFA Online in Korea that had record-breaking numbers of simultaneous users across multiple countries and further enriched his cultural and business understanding of the Asia Pacific region. After sitting at the helm of two of the largest corporate entities in Asia, Niermann left the corporate world to found FarWest Entertainment. With FarWest, Niermann bridged the region with the rest of the world via pan-Asian original productions like Asia Uncut on Fox’s Star World network (reaching 53 countries and 250 million homes), the region’s only late night English talk show which he hosted and won the Asian Television Award for Best Entertainment Host after his first year. The show featured interviews with top Asian and Western celebrities including Jackie Chan, Edward Norton, Donnie Yen, Maggie Q, Aaron Eckhart and many more.
Niermann co-founded Loop Media in 2016, shortly after moving back to CA after 15 years in Asia. Loop acquired Screenplay Entertainment in 2018, SPKR in 2020 and EON Media in 2021 and is planning further expansion in 2022. Niermann is based in Loop’s Glendale, CA headquarters.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.