There are a lot of streaming services out there and businesses are always looking for a new place to advertise. Hotstar is one of the streaming services that offer a wide range of content and it has become the one destination for video consumption of various consumers. The platform has virtually everything, movies, TV shows, News, and sports streaming.
There is a huge range of TV shows with full-length episodes. It is quite an experience to watch your favorite shows without having to open up various websites and stream the episodes one by one. The platform is designed to provide you with the experience that you need and the episodes and movies are available in various regional languages so that you do not have to face any language barriers.
Let’s See Some Statistics
- There are some facts and statistics that help Hotstar stand out from the rest of the platforms. These are mentioned below:
- Over a quarter of the people watching the videos on Hotstar stream the videos in their regional languages.
- Out of the total number of users, 20% of the users are quite loyal to the platform. Statistics show that these users return to the platform at least once every three days.
- Females watching the content on the platform view the content mostly from 11 AM and 3 PM, and during these watch hours, nearly 40% of the viewers are females.
- The advertisements receive over 8 million video impressions per day and the users spend an average of 16 minutes per day on Hotstar and 70% of the users view the content from their mobile phones.
- For instance, if you are advertising a Digital Marketing Agency in Bangalore, the advertisement will receive over 8 million impressions across the platform in a single day.
- The monthly active users on Hotstar average at about 23 million and this number goes up to 100 million during IPL and the Cricket World Cup.
- During the sports seasons, Hotstar delivers somewhere between 50 million to 120 million ad impressions and this number trickles down to 25 million during the non-sporting season.
- Over 53% of the total user base is aged between 18 and 24 years. 36% of the viewers are aged between 25 and 34 years while the rest of the 11% are aged above 35 years.
- 55% of the viewers are males while 45% of the viewers on Hotstar are females.
Features of Hotstar Advertisement
Like many other advertising platforms, Hotstar provides many targeting options which the advertisers can use in order to reach a more potential audience.
Following are the various options that Hotstar provides in terms of targeting specific audiences:
- Device: Mobile or Desktop
- Age Groups
- Gender
- Geographical demographics
- Behavioral interests
- Genre
There are many interests that are targeted to reach the best possible audience. These include:
- Online Shopper’s
- Auto Cohort
- Gamer’s
- Beauty Cohort
- Grooming Cohort
- Travel
- Fashion
- Job Interest Cohort
- Financial App’s Cohort
- E-Com Interest Cohort
Ad Formats on Hotstar
There are two main ad formats on Hotstar; Image and Carousel.
The placements for the image ads
- Billboard: Image as well as video on both mobile and desktops
- Frame: Only on mobile devices
- Stub: Only on mobile devices
- In-stream ads: On mobile devices as well as desktops
Do’s & Don’t for Hotstar Advertising
- Do not use a background colour that is similar to the colour of the Background container of the advertisements. Instead, use a contrasting colour so that your advertisement is easily visible to the users.
- Do not include any Call-to-action buttons on the creatives themselves. Hotstar advertisements are designed in such a way that there is accommodation for the call-to-action buttons below the creatives.
- In case of the Billboard video advertisement, it is advised to leave about 15090 pixels in the bottom left corner for the mobile creatives and 13060
- pixels in the bottom left corner for the desktop creatives, so the creatives don’t interfere with the play button on the video player.
- Do not make your coupon codes appear as call-to-action buttons. There are huge chances that Hotstar will reject the creative if your coupon codes appear to be looking like CTA buttons.
- Do not include any background in your creative work. Try to use all the space that is provided for your designs as it leaves a rather more remarkable impression on the viewers.
YouTube Ads Vs Hotstar Ads- Which Should You Choose?
There are many differences between advertising on YouTube and Hotstar. When you are advertising on YouTube, the objective of the campaign is to tell a story of some sort. However, on Hotstar, it is all about advertising your brand.
Both these platforms are the top-rated video platforms in India and they are quite similar when it comes to targeting options.
YouTube displays advertisements based on the interests of the people while Hotstar does so based on the behaviour of the audience. The former allows the retargeting of the audience but only for website visitors.
The latter, on the other hand, allows the retargeting only for the people who are ad viewers on the platform. YouTube allows for long video ads while the maximum ad length for Hotstar is only one minute.
The purpose of the advertisements on YouTube is for entertainment as well as education while the advertisements on Hotstar are all for entertainment only. You can be assured that the engagement levels on Hotstar are high while they are low on YouTube.
YouTube has no control over brand safety. However, Hotstar can assure you the advertisements will be visible only on high quality and authentically curated content.
You should take your time understanding what kind of audience you want viewing your advertisements and based on that, you should choose between the two platforms.