Live-event video an attractive but untapped brand platform in Asia

Last month, One Fighting Championship, Asia's largest mixed-martial-arts event, presented an event called Return of Warriors via livesport.tv, allowing fans across the region and the world to catch the action live. The organisation offers live streaming of all its events. 

Across the region, Vietnam has the highest video-viewing penetration (89.8 per cent reach), followed by Hong Kong (88.7 per cent reach), Singapore (84.5 per cent reach), Japan (83.7 per cent reach) and New Zealand (83.4 per cent reach), which all exceed the global average, according to comScore data from August 2012.

“The gap in the region now is between the demands of changing consumer viewing habits and how advertisers can catch up to reach consumers,” said Lee Walsh, regional director of digital for General Motors International Operations, at Carat Media Singapore.

Lack of live-event inventory is the problem. "User base here is big, and networks are expanding their inventory through content acquisition to try and meet demand,” said Amit Patel, digital content manager at MediaCom Singapore. “Growing content offers more advertising opportunities, but it’s still rare to see executions on live streaming in Asia Pacific because the product offering here is so sporadic.”

One issue is that it is difficult sometimes for international publishers to deal on a large scale in Asia-Pacific.

“They need to have the rights to video or live-streaming content, but most licences are on the local level,” said Walsh. “For example, with something like sporting rights, these are often already sold to local TV networks and that means they can’t be sold to other publishers to stream online.”

Patel added that there are still infrastructure challenges in some countries, such as Thailand, where internet bandwidth may not be able to cope with high-quality streaming.

“Mobile streaming is also becoming very popular,” he added. “However data plans and bandwidth also need to keep up, which is a challenge in most of Southeast Asia's emerging markets.”

Despite the challenges, publishers have been pushing into Asia-Pacific. For example, Fox, formerly known as ESPN, is starting to get into live coverage of sporting events, offering content related to events that are appearing on broadcast television, such as F1 racing, Patel said.

The medium can offer brands cost efficiency, Walsh said. “Advertisers can use video to generate mass reach and frequency, in the same way they would through TV, but cheaper, as the CPM rates are lower cost than TV.”

However, he pointed out that the importance of frequency will depend on the number of events streamed. Frequency will be capped at one if it is a one-off event, but if a brand is associated with a series of live streaming events, such as sponsoring a sports season, the frequency of repeat viewers will be a very strong measure of success.

For non-branded events, such as live streaming of sports or music events, Walsh said advertising tends to be sold on a fixed sponsorship basis, which delivers brand equity of being associated with a favourable event.

Advertisers can also choose to be highly targeted with video advertising, based on demographics, age, interests, etc. “The advantage [of live streaming] is to reach niche and highly engaged audiences,” Walsh said. “Anyone taking the time to make an appointment viewing slot is likely to have a strong interest in the topic. It is more of an engaged and personal experience than just turning on a TV.”

What can brands and media buyers expect next in this space?

"Look out for the new technologies in online streaming, such as the TV players, because that will decide where the scale is and therefore where advertisers should put their money,” Patel said.

With the growth of smart devices, advertisers will have an opportunity to sponsor and integrate brands into more interactive content, and live streaming allows viewers to interact with the content in real time, such as through Twitter and Facebook feeds.

“Currently it’s an open space with no dominant player in APAC," he said. "Although Google TV is expected to be emerging as a dominant platform, don’t hedge your bets with one specific technology or platform."