C’mon Publishers and Streamers, Give It a Wurl
When it comes to solving business problems, the Wurl platform addresses three core needs in the CTV ecosystem for content publishers and streamers : monetization, performance marketing, and distribution.
On the monetization front, it helps publishers and streamers maximize their supply by connecting them with advertisers. In terms of performance marketing, its connects publishers and streamers to the viewers who are most likely to enjoy and come back for specific content. Regarding distribution, Wurl supports publishers and streamers in expanding their content lineups and reaching global audiences.
Wurl works with some of the world’s largest and most well-known media properties, including AKCtv, Bloomberg, BBC, rlaxx TV, and ShadeTV, to name a few.
Nicole Fuselier, Wurl’s VP of Marketing, sat down with Streetfight to discuss challenges in the market from a multi-location perspective.
What are the multi-location or hyperlocal marketing challenges faced by the content creators and those using Wurl’s services?
For streamers and publishers, there are cases where certain content might be particularly appetizing for specific geographic areas. For example, if a Spanish-language publisher needs more viewers, it would stand to reason to focus content promotion on zip codes known to have a high population of Spanish-speaking households. Beyond geographic location, however, cross-device marketing on the mobile, web, and on CTV itself also plays an important role for publishers and streamers. Studies have shown that many people engage with their mobile devices while streaming, offering a unique opportunity for publishers and streamers to market their content to audiences across platforms.
What kind of functionality does Wurl provide its clients?
At Wurl, we’ve been hyper-focused on building solutions that would bring our clients true performance-marketing capabilities. Similar to how performance marketing has changed the game for web and mobile, that same full-funnel approach has the ability to transform CTV. We launched ContentDiscovery earlier this year – Wurl’s machine learning-powered advertising platform that allows publishers and streamers to acquire viewers and scale profitably across channels. ContentDiscovery finds high-value viewers within the CTV ecosystem and then promotes content they will want to watch, driving strong viewer conversion rates and retention – resulting in a return on advertising spend (ROAS) never before seen on CTV.
When it comes to local- or location-specific marketing, how does Wurl and/or the CTV ecosystem at-large play a role?
Growth in viewership on CTV devices around the world is rising exponentially every year. For multi-location marketers, CTV offers an opportunity to deliver ads to audiences based on geographic criteria. By leveraging CTV advertising, marketers can craft localized messages and promotions for specific regions. For example, a fast-food chain can run a CTV ad that includes information about where the nearest store is and offer location-specific promotions using QR codes. And, as measurement and attribution in the CTV space become stronger, marketers can assess the effectiveness of these CTV campaigns in driving foot traffic at store locations.
What are Wurl’s key differentiators? What do clients get that they can’t get anywhere else?
Wurl’s key focus is to transform marketing into a revenue driver – as opposed to a cost center – for streamers and publishers. The way to do this is by bringing true bottom-funnel performance marketing capabilities to CTV, as opposed to focusing purely on brand-awareness tactics. For streamers especially, Wurl offers performance-based tools that others operating in performance marketing don’t offer today. Our approach and technology focus on connecting viewers to content through targeted ads and promotions, followed by measuring converted viewers and calculating for ROAS. With this approach, we’re bringing data-driven targeting and measurement to advertising for the first time.
Connected TV is a hot, but not yet fully formed ecosystem, with many of the players and positioning still in flux. What should marketers know about CTV that they might not know already?
CTV is still a relatively new medium, with more players entering the market. The same is true for viewers, as they are inundated with an endless menu of options both in how and where to watch their programming of choice. Marketers should recognize discoverability as the key challenge facing the streaming industry today. Before, that challenge was distributing content; then, it became monetizing. Now, as CTV moves through its next phase of growth, connecting viewers to content they will enjoy is the industry’s number-one pain point – but also the biggest opportunity for those who can get it right.
