Are shoppable OTTs the future?

Shoppable OTTs are likely to bridge gaps and make it easier for consumers to shop what they see being used or being worn by people on screen.

While official merchandises play a big part in the promotion and dissemination of a visual media product, fuelling fashion related creativity too is essential for brand identity. Have you ever walked into a store and asked for a particular saree that was worn by an actress in a movie? Cue: Deepika Padukone's blue-black look in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.

According to a report released by Brightcove, 19% of people in India surveyed said they would love to have shopping options such as — click to buy the product shown on an OTT service. Dealing with the specifics, the report highlights that there is a strong interest in the TV to commerce opportunity across the Asian countries surveyed.

On average, 30% of users are open to purchasing products as seen on TV post-program, while 40% might be open to the concept—representing a potential market size of 70%.

This is an area that remains largely untapped and has a high potential to be the next revenue opportunity for OTT service providers and advertisers. For consumers, advertising taps into the power of discovery and awareness. With OTT, ads can be part of the OTT content experience. The report asserts that combining the two means OTT TV commerce can form part of a dual-prong ad strategy.

How to do it?

OTT service providers can serve ads during breaks, embed products within the content, and make those products interactive — providing an option to purchase products during a paused program or after the show ends. "This ad strategy can help OTT service providers open up new revenue streams and diversify current ones," suggests the report.

By marrying TV with commerce and adding interactive elements, OTT service providers can explore the measurable impact of branded content— which can give viewers the ability to either seek out more information about the product onscreen or click to buy. 

The report highlights that branded content enables OTT service providers to go beyond native OTT advertising and offers advertisers another innovative way to market their product and uncover user buying preferences — all with a trackable conversion rate.

Brands in action

A British alcohol company had partnered with Amazon Prime Video to come out with a video series in 2017. This was done to promote a specific portfolio of liquor options offered by the brand. Links were embedded in the videos that were shot in a travel documentary style. Consumers were redirected to Diageo's e-commerce site where they could shop the liquor featured in the show. This was an interesting case of a brand leveraging an OTT platform to drive sales.

The method can be noticed by fashion show category videos put up by fashion e-commerce platforms like Myntra. The trend is only expected to get better with time. In a recent campaign that starred Sonakshi Sinha, Mynta had created a space for an online reality show that engaged influencers as well as highlighted the products they have on offer.