Always hungry for arresting movies, viewers search for other video landscapes that go beyond traditional cable. Almost 30% of cable TV subscribers intended to turn into cordcutters in 2021, which is twice higher than in the previous survey period. Echelon Studios, which covers production, financing, and distribution of video content in the entertainment business, has recently decided to expand its reach to Connected TV (CTV) with VlogBox.
Over the past few years, Echelon Studios has made a name for itself in the industry through a slate of projects that target DVD, TV, and theater markets. It covers over 5,000 first-run titles, 15,000 classic film titles, and a staggering 30,000 music titles. They realized that CTV is an innovative environment where being pioneers is a small victory, and needed step-by-step assistance to plunge into.
Why exactly was CTV so challenging for Echelon Studios?
Echelon Studios is among the chief distributors of independent programming to Pay Cable, Pay-Per-View, and Basic Cable systems internationally. The organization represents upwards of 300 companies that require distribution services, marketing, and content monetization. But the goal of winning the CTV audience brought several new challenges:
Novel Monetization Opportunities. With the continuing expansion of technology in broadcast media, monetization as a way of gaining profit for content publishers has become a new normal. CTV as a marketing ecosystem is still young but fast moving, which makes it one of the highly demanded placements and marketing ecosystems.
New Ways to Grow Viewership. The same story: viewers continue drifting away from traditional TV towards digital platforms, so expanding the audience, viewership and brand awareness on CTV is a logical step.
Search for a Management Team. There was an urgent need to find those who know the rules of the game and who can provide distribution, support and reporting of video performance.
Reaching US Viewers – Echelon Studios decided to specifically concentrate on the US as one of the top cord cutting audiences.
How VlogBox turned challenges into opportunities
VlogBox is a global CTV app development, video content distribution and monetization company that provides targeted advertisements for over-the-top (OTT) and connected television (CTV) apps, thus generating revenue for content creators. VlogBox helped to launch almost 700 apps within a large number of verticals, including animation, films, vlogging, education, cooking, etc, across top streaming platforms.
“We had to adapt the Echelon Studios strategy and tactics to a new environment, bringing the CTV user behavior and platform specifics into focus. So we based the strategy on three key factors: right platforms, getting fully integrated in a marketing ecosystem, and granular targeting” – shares Nick Platonenko, CEO at Vlogbox.
Channel development on Roku and Fire TV
Echelon had a primary focus on the US audience. Therefore Vlogbox suggested Roku and Fire TV as the two platforms that are associated with the US information consumers.
Plunging into a fully-fledged marketing ecosystem
VlogBox assists in starting the SVOD and AVOD monetization process, connecting the publisher to top demand platforms with relatable ads. This made the transition to the OTT environment smooth and Echelon apps got access to top advertisers at the early stages.
Precise targeting options
VlogBox provides accurate targeting settings to reach the desired group of viewers.
Creating a channel-aggregator with zero investment
The VlogBox team developed a Top Rated Movies for Echelon Studios – a film channel-aggregator with the most watched movie pictures, organised by genre. A storage of 400+ headlines has seen a dramatic increase in viewership since it’s launch. Among other success indicators of Echelon Studios CTV expansion were:
High CPM rates and growing revenue
Echelon Studios managed to double audiences on the most popular CTV platforms. The company can now enjoy greater profits through monetization on a SVOD and AVOD basis.
Raising US viewership
According to a monthly report, over 80% of the viewers of Top Rated Movies are from the US.
Additionally, the Echelon Studios content was added to Yeet!TV, a multitopic channel by VlogBox, covering content of various genres. This helped with the initial boost of Top Rated Movies and allowed it to drive additional audiences.
“With the right monetization model and access to the marketing ecosystem Echelon Studios will reach even more viewers, earning their niche as the industry shifts to СTV/OTT from traditional cable,”- says Eric Louzil, President & CEO at Echelon Studios.
