Advertising product improvement opportunities using segmentation in Video-on-Demand services : A case study of MTG’s opportunities in the shift from television to streaming video

Sammanfattning: More and more people choose to watch television online through online video-on- demand services. For media corporations, such as the Modern Times Group (MTG), this means that video-on-demand will become an increasingly important source of revenue. Because video-on-demand is an online service, advertising products offered therein are in competition with other online advertising products. Currently, MTG’s video-on-demand advertising products are the same as on regular television, meaning they haven’t yet taken advantage of any advertising product development opportunities made possible by Internet technology. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to determine what MTG’s strategy should be to improve the competitiveness and revenue of their video-on-demand advertising products, and what key concerns need to be addressed in order to realize the determined strategy. By request of the commissioner, MTG, possible uses of segmentation to achieve the strategy are studied. The methods used to collect data include multiple interviews both at MTG and at their current advertising customers, as well as web analytics and a questionnaire. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis was used to answer the research questions. Findings suggest that MTG should strive to improve the engagement of their advertising products, through the use of contextual segmentation and self-segmentation. This goes against the current trend in online advertising, where segmentation is primarily used for ad targeting. The reason for not adhering to the trend is that MTG’s advertising customers operate in a television mindset, where ad targeting is of a very limited nature and engagement is of greater perceived value.