Digital Platforms Have Created an Attention Economy
If you’re an advertiser, you’ve been tackling the same problem for a while now. Digital platforms have created an “attention economy” in which brands must struggle to compete for consumer attention in a brutal, crowded marketplace. Many brands have turned to targeted marketing to defeat the attention economy, reasoning that ad dollars spent targeting the right demographics for their products are far more likely to succeed than a blanket marketing campaign that reaches tons of people who might just tune it out.
Click Farms -- are you paying for more than you are getting?
Some companies have turned to Facebook ads and other online targeting services to reach their consumer base. But “click farms” operated by black hat marketers seeking to boost their own products have made Facebook and other targeted web ads less measurable and more expensive. For every click you get from an interested consumer, you could also be getting (and paying for) two or three fake clicks.
TOK.tv is offering a solution to the targeted advertising problem for marketers reaching out to sports fans. Sports fans are some of the hardest people to reach with effective targeted marketing because so much of sports-watching takes place over cable or broadcast television, which are expensive and difficult to measure venues. Sports fans could be advertised to in a more targeted and cost-effective way if there were more options to reach them online, but the domination of broadcast content providers like ESPN means most sports fans are dedicating attention to cable broadcasts or illegal online streams.
The TOK.tv Platform.
TOK.tv, an app launched in 2012, has been providing marketers with options for targeted engagement with sports fans for several years now. The popular app boasts almost 30 million users, and its base is growing at a rate of about one million per month.
TOK.tv was founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Fabrizio Capobianco, an Italian native who wanted a way to watch sports socially with his friends and family spread across the world. The TOK.tv app allows users to socialize with each other through chat, voice calls, social selfies, small wagers, and even sound effects, allowing sports fandom to be the social experience fans want even when long distances separate them.
So how can TOK.tv help advertisers? The platform already offers highly targeted monetization by running mobile ads on viewers’ TOK.tv app screens while they’re watching events. The ads are targeted not only based on the game being watched but also the user’s profile, and as such are far less likely to be the subject of fake clicks.
Bringing Blockchain to Sports Entertainment.
TOK.tv’s upcoming 2018 ICO means even more utility is coming to the platform. Many industry voices are predicting blockchain will eventually surpass cable and traditional online streaming as the technology providing television. Blockchain is uniquely well-suited to handle streaming video because its immutable ledger can securely handle digital rights management, alleviating piracy concerns.
Blockchain also has real promise for decentralized advertising.
The TOK tokens soon to be sold to the public can be used by TOK.tv profiles to access content such as highlight reels provided by partners (an impressive roster that includes Real Madrid and the LA Clippers), participate in fan contests, make friendly wagers, and tap into many other social interactions with the app.
Fake clicks are eliminated through the use of blockchain tokens.
The tokens keep the flow of content among users and providers extremely secure and measurable. If a user clicks an advertising link while viewing content they’ve accessed with a blockchain token, then the advertiser has absolute proof a distinct blockchain ledger is tied to that click. Advertisers can target marketing efforts and boost engagement while being certain their statistics are accurate representations of consumer interest. These statistics, in turn, can help marketers develop more fine-tuned branding campaigns.
As TOK.tv gets its blockchain platform going, it will also offer more opportunities for advertisers to connect with sports fans even when they cut the cord with cable. TOK.tv plans to use blockchain to distribute highlight reels provided by its partner teams -- content that’s already popular among busy and international sports fans who have difficulty watching live broadcasts. As the platform develops, more content will be accessible with blockchain tokens, allowing additional opportunities for targeted and certified engagement.
Final Thoughts.
Advertising has always been a moving target, but as technology landscapes shift and evolve, only advertisers who pay attention to how consumer attention shifts will come out on top. TOK.tv is using one of the newest and most promising technologies coming into the mainstream right now to provide new opportunities for sports fans and the advertisers who court them.
How can decentralized content be used to target specific sports fans?