How one company hopes to expand creators’ presence in TV ads as CTV engagement grows

This comes as eMarketer expects 52.7% of the U.S. population to sign up for streaming services with ads this year — with the industry reconsidering how creators can be useful outside of social media channels.

Studio71 said its CTV viewership grew from 11% to 26% over the last five years, without giving exact numbers. With the new product, brands — Lego and Disney are some of its advertisers — get more flexibility to run their TV-style creatives and shorter ads adapted for mobile devices on CTV platforms. The product started beta testing this summer and is now rolled out globally.

“Our ad impressions are more than 50% inside the living room with a lot of our ad dollars now being consumed on CTV,” said Matt Crowley, co-CEO of Studio71, citing internal data. “We’re serving shorter-form ads in 15-second length, and having the ability to serve that longer ad creative that’s forced view, non-skippable ad.”

Platforms, including YouTube, Roku and Amazon together generated hundreds of millions of hours in watch time totals in just the last month, per Studio71’s compilation of those companies’ figures. With this launch, the company hopes to add to its current access to some 139 million monthly active viewers in the U.S. (per ComScore’s Metrix Multi-Platform Report) – representing around half of the country’s video audience.

Studio71’s content division produces thousands of original videos for its owned and operated channels, podcasts and apps, as well as publishes more than 1,800 creator channels. The company works with agencies and brands to produce ads, but also directly with creators in the original content.

In particular, Studio71 is also investing in more YouTube creator content through its programming slate with shows that look and feel like traditional TV featuring YouTube creators. This includes unscripted paranormal series like “Ghost Files” and “Are You Scared?,” running several times a week and another program HeavyDSparks on machinery and automotive builds, which releases 20-minute videos weekly.

This comes as YouTube earlier this year updated its TV app to include more interactive features, like simplifying shopping checkouts on TV. YouTube last month also said it plans to add more creator-centered features at its event — allowing creators to organize episodes and seasons, cinematic previews and other channel page updates as the video platform competes with major streamers.

Crowley characterized Studio71’s CPMs for social and CTV as not having “a massive change.” Studio71 has worked with brands from P&G to Audible.

However, Kari Bliss, director of campaign success at influencer agency HireInfluence, cautioned that this trend comes with a financial challenge as influencer marketing campaigns typically differ in CPM prices from CTV. Bliss did not mention exact CPM ranges. That aside, Bliss agrees that combining influencers with CTV’s broad reach can offer more “storytelling opportunities” and allow brands to invest in traditional TV spots.

“CTV rates are typically higher than those for social media campaigns,” Bliss said. “Brands must ensure they have the necessary resources and allocate budgets that reflect the value of influencer content.”

Many influencer agencies are investing in content studios, digital out-of-home or CTV offerings to scale their creator content in more ways. For example, creator agency Whalar later this year will open a new division called Lighthouse with a physical creator campus. The locations will allow creators to connect and – perhaps most importantly – make studio-quality content using production facilities with video-enabled podcast suites, editing bays and photography and music studios.

“Think of it as like the Soho House for like creators,” said Kimberly Phan, senior director of measurement and analytics North America of Whalar, at Digiday’s Media Buying Summit. “[Creator content is] everything through the whole entire funnel. We’ve also worked with different tech companies after creating these vast forms of content, and curating it to match up with things within like television for out-of-home — creators are more than just a social focus.”