Omnicom Media and Paramount+ partner on dynamic fixed ad units in the streamer’s premieres

Technically, the partnership gives Omnicom Media clients first access to what they’re calling dynamic streaming fixed units solution, which lets brands tell sequential stories in Paramount’s premiere-week (read seven days, when ratings are usually highest) ad format by making them adaptive, intelligent, and contextually responsive to viewers.

“In addition to having a brand own that unit, we can offer some dynamic targeting to different audience segments, so that users in different parts of the country may see a different creative, but the brand still owns that slot in the show,” explained Leo O’Connor, Paramount Advertising’s evp of streaming. “And then, as a follow-up, we’re able to then show sequential storytelling to that user with different versions of the creative as that user continues their journey with us on Paramount+.”

“Paramount will drop their most popular shows in different ways — a lot of the shows are dropped in threes,” said Megan Pagliuca, Omnicom Media’s chief product officer. “When you’re dropped in threes, people tend to binge, and so capturing the sequential storytelling within the binge, and treating it actually like a binge, [gives the viewer seeing the ads] a more positive and more personalized sequential storytelling experience throughout.”

O’Connor added that “the real power here is … these huge moments where we get millions of people watching at once is a horrible thing to waste by carving it up into one-by-one impressions.”

Omincom’s Omni operating platform provides the audience identification using Acxiom data to help personalize the experience, added Keagan McDonnell, head of partner innovation and strategic initiatives at OM North America. “When teams are building and identifying audiences, within Omni and  Acxiom and the data spine underneath Omni, audiences will be able to be created, built, and then distributed directly to Paramount,” he said.

Princess Cruises is the first Omnicom Media client to sign up to the offering, and has conducted a beta test of the new format. “We have been chasing relevance and creative storytelling at scale in streaming environments for years,” said Nick Charrow, director of media at Princess Cruises. “What makes this approach compelling is the ability to turn a high-impact premiere placement into the beginning of a connected, multiple exposure consumer journey. It creates the potential for us to more intentionally and effectively engage our target audience and make each impression more purposeful.”

McDonnell actually saw the cruise line’s beta test when he was traveling. “I’m in Charlotte, so I saw the ad that was more built for my DMA, versus someone in New York or Miami, which are ports of call for some of these trips,” he said. “That ability to leverage dynamic there is really powerful.”

The creative effort on the agency side requires a post-templated approach, added Alissa Hansen, CEO of Omnicom Production North America. “Sequential storytelling is a playground, because now, we can take it in many different ways,” she said, noting it can enhance the consumer journey from inspiration to purchase but it also combats the ad fatigue. “One of the biggest constraints with something like this is, the client might say, ‘This is an amazing shared cultural experience, but I only have one ad, one asset. Now we know we can build on that, and that might be through the lens of creative curiosity, brand affiliation, consumer journey, transactional approaches, depending on what client and what vertical.”

OM’s partnership with Paramount follows collaborations announced at Cannes Lions with Disney Advertising and a first-time deal with Netflix.