Advertising After the Pause
A Savvy Approach for Streaming Platforms to Partner Revenue Generation With a Seamless Viewing Experience
Advertisements. They seem to be everywhere in our society, but perhaps none more frequently than on streaming platforms. A typical program that is 60 minutes in length would average out to about 10 minutes in ads. As viewers, we are often frustrated by persistent disruptions to our content and advertising that intrudes into our experience. Here’s a question: how often do you pause a stream to grab something to eat or to use the restroom? Data shows it’s common, and streaming platforms have taken notice. Introducing a new method to displaying ads: Pause ads.
Let’s briefly explain what pause ads are and how they offer a fluid viewing experience through minimizing intrusion:
Pause ads eliminate the format of inserting commercials before, during, or after a video by allowing you to enjoy an uninterrupted play-through of their content. Only when the stream is paused would a sponsor display its advertising, filling up the stagnant screen until you decide to press Play on the video again.
Hulu was one of the first streaming platforms to incorporate pause ads, partnering with Coca-Cola and Charmin to deliver “subtle and relevant” advertising while you take a quick break from the content. The goal is to reduce obtrusion into the streaming content while implementing a conscious product that appears in common activities you would do when paused. This hopefully increases the relevance of the advertised brand when you’re in the store shopping next time.
Strategists see pause ads to be a viable pathway for generating advertising revenue. Hulu hopes to see pause ads rake in “50 percent of Hulu’s ad revenue within the next three years” (Anthony Ha), while competitors like Netflix are taking note of pausing trends in their consumers. The streaming service recently found that the “peak pause time across the nation is at 7:29 p.m” (Shaymus McLaughlin).
So what is the future of advertising on streaming platforms? It very well may be utilizing the valuable time when you hit the Pause button.
Resources:
Ha, Anthony. “Hulu Announces a New Ad Unit That Appears When You Pause.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 31 Jan. 2019, techcrunch.com/2019/01/31/hulu-pause-ad/.
McLaughlin, Shaymus. “Netflix Remembers Every Time You Pause a Show (and a Lot of Other Info).” Bring Me The News, 8 Mar. 2018, bringmethenews.com/news/netflix-remembers-every-time-you-pause-a-show-and-its-a-lot-on-halloween.
Margo Boxer contributed to the reporting of this article.
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