Dailymotion repositions, enticing advertisers with a ‘clean’ platform for older audiences seeking premium video
Vivendi video platform Dailymotion has today (20 June) unveiled a host of changes to its offering, including a brand repositioning that will see it target an older audience seeking premium content ‘clean’ of explicit visuals.
Dailymotion repositions following Vivendi sale
Dailymotion, which was founded in 2005 and purchased by Vivendi in 2015, will now focus its audience building efforts on the 18-49 age demographic – with a particular focus on those 25 and over – as part of its parent company’s strategy to restart the platform ‘on a blank page’.
Its reasoning is threefold: the adult demographic has money and therefore is an attractive prospect for advertisers; it is discerning and seeks out premium content that Vivendi’s entertainment groups can provide; and it is not catered for by other video brands.
“The digital platforms today that are thriving are very much focused on a young audience,” explained Maxime Saada, chief executive and chairman of Dailymotion, at Cannes Lions. “And it’s getting younger and younger, sometimes independently of what [other platforms] really want, but that’s the market reality.
“We thought there was an unserved audience that we believed was very attractive. It’s a more adult population that we believe is a strong market opportunity.”
Dailymotion will lure in this cash-rich, time-poor audience with a focus on premium content. Ahead of the launch the brand signed hosting deals with ‘hundreds’ of media brands, including flagship partnerships with Vice, CNN and Universal Music Group. Although the latter is part of the Vivendi group, it still “took a lot of time to convince them” to join up.
Additionally – and as a shrewd two-fingers up to rival YouTube and its brand safety issues – Dailymotion is drawing attention to the fact that it is a ‘clean’ platform, with an ingrained zero tolerance policy for explicit content and a “best in-class non-human traffic detection system”.
However Saada believes Dailymotion’s true point of difference lies in the fact it is part of a content company, and not a pure-play tech outfit. “We come from Canal+, we come from Universal Music, we come from Ubisoft and Gameloft and content is absolute critical in the Vivendi strategy.
“We really want to show our love for the content of our partners and we believe the user experience will show that we love content more than others do.”
Dailymotion’s new user experience will see content divided into four strands: news, sport, music and entertainment. ‘Fresh’ (new) and live content will be prioritised on users’ feeds, which will also feature recommendations and a library function that stores their subscriptions.
The brand has also rolled out a suite of new choices for mobile advertisers, including a ‘sticky footer’ and in-video vertical advertising whereby an ad appears within the video on a distinct node within the player itself. Saada said the team focused on developing formats that are as non-intrusive as possible.
“I personally believe that ad blocking is something that exists because the industry wasn’t able to provide a satisfactory advertising experience,” he added. “As we were developing the experience of watching video, we wanted to make the advertising experience as satisfactory as possible, as enjoyable as possible and as modern as possible.”
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