Aardman’s Crash Course on FAST Channels for Advertisers
Last month, animation studio Aardman announced the launch of its brand-new FAST TV channel ‘Shaun the Sheep & Friends’, now available on Xumo Play, VIZIO WatchFree+ and Samsung TV Plus in the United States. Aardman content available to watch on the platform includes, ‘Shaun the Sheep’, ‘Timmy Time’ and ‘Learning Time with Timmy’, ‘Wallace & Gromit’, just to name a few programmes, as well as behind the scenes, crafts, and more.
But what is a FAST channel exactly and what are its benefits? Standing for free ad-supported television, these channels are dedicated to premium content, and in Aardman’s case, theirs is also packed with hilarious, heartwarming family entertainment.
Head of digital and strategic development at Aardman, Laura Taylor-Williams explains that in a nutshell, FAST channels are free to watch, but include adverts. “With the cost-of-living crisis and frankly just ballooning entertainment bills through the myriads of subscription services on offer, this has made audiences in the US flock to FAST.”
These platforms also come in handy for that well-known ‘what shall I watch’ fatigue that we’ve all experienced flicking through our subscription services. Laura says that this is one of the reasons why a leaned back curated channel can be appealing for audiences.
“The increasing penetration of connected TVs have meant CTV manufacturers have really pushed FAST channels and AVOD content, as a USP to their hardware sales, plus the margins made on content and advertising are greater than hardware sales. So it’s a commercial play for them too,” she says.
From an advertising standpoint, it turns out that FAST “can provide advertisers with opportunities to target specific audiences based on demographics, interests and viewing behaviours,” unlike traditional TV and subscription platforms. In the kids’ space and family-friendly TV, where Aardman operates, this personalisation is particularly handy due to the limitations and regulations.
Here is what else Laura had to say about how fast FAST will take over our screens and what this will look like on a global scale.
LBB> What is the difference in audiences that makes FAST more desirable for a US audience in comparison with a UK one? Is this changing?
Laura> In countries like the UK and across Western Europe, where there is a strong Free TV broadcaster market, FAST doesn’t sound particularly revolutionary as we as viewers are used to watching content in a linear format for free with and without adverts. However, for viewers in the States, until FAST channels came along, they had little access to free curated content because a lot of content in the US is behind a paywall; cable and subscription packages can be expensive. In the US, FAST and AVOD have been novel for audiences.
FAST has bought audiences a wealth of programming that previously wouldn’t have been available. In the US, recent statistics report that FAST audiences are younger, more ethnically and racially diverse than traditional cable companies, meaning underserved audiences can now access more content that caters to them, which is valuable for them. It’s equally valuable for advertisers to be able to fully reach their target audience and increase commercial success.
Wider content choices will be appealing to audiences from other countries as well as the USA. It just might be that the content mix is slightly different and appeals to a country’s unique cultural tastes.
LBB> What does FAST provide to advertisers that other formats do not and why is it more desirable?
Laura> Since FAST TV is delivered digitally it enables deeper targeting and personalization. Unlike most traditional TV channels, FAST can provide advertisers with opportunities to target specific audiences based on demographics, interests and viewing behaviours. Advertising on FAST platforms is a mix of programmatic and direct sales to brands. Direct sales to brands are particularly important in the kids' space where there are greater limitations when advertising to kids; ads need to be COPPA compliant, and the pool of suitable advertisers for kid’s content is always going to be more limited.
That said, FAST can target geographically which opens up a FAST TV campaign to a subset of companies whose budgets may have not previously stretched to a TV campaign.
The next step is for the industry to come together and make advertising effectiveness and reporting more transparent and consistent across platforms, that way advertisers will see even more value in this medium to target their audience.
LBB> Tell me more about the Aardman FAST channel you've recently launched – Shaun the Sheep & Friends – you've decided to set up. When did the idea come about and why did you decide it's a good step forward for the US market? Why was starting this channel the right idea for you as a studio?
Laura> Shaun the Sheep & Friends is available now on Xumo Play and coming soon on VIZIO WatchFree+ and Samsung TV Plus in the United States.
Aardman has a strong distribution business with lots of experience partnering with free TV broadcasters, Subscription services and AVOD. Our global YouTube presence is vast, as an example, we’re nearing 10 billion views across Shaun the Sheep on the platform, there’s a lot of love for our brands out there.
However, an important part of my role at Aardman is strategic development; looking for audience trends and content monetization opportunities outside of where we are already successful.
Our FAST Channel is a key part of our US digital strategy; where our goal is to engage with audiences wherever they are. In a fragmented market, we see FAST channels as helping audiences discover content, aiding onward watching via other ways, whether that be AVOD, SVOD, TVOD. It’s part of a 360° brand approach.
Since FAST channels are digital, they are delivered via an internet connection. This removes the high costs and geographical restrictions of traditional broadcasting, which enables independent companies like Aardman to be nimble and launch a FAST channel. Although the kids & family genre within FAST is still small, the overall penetration and growth of people using FAST services means the numbers are still significant.
LBB> How did you pick the programmes that would be available to watch on the channel and what strategic considerations went into this?
Laura> Our vision with the channel is to entertain our US audiences with our original, funny and heartwarming stories. We are an award-winning studio, we currently hold four Academy Awards and a raft of BAFTA and Emmy awards, so with anything we do quality is always top of mind. Our FAST channel is no different and will be a premium curated experience of our content.
We have a real USP with our channel in that we can mix our premium show and specials content with branded craft, recipes, songs. It will be a place where we showcase content for the first time to our US audiences whether that be episodes or publicity beats such as character reveals.
We also wanted the channel to be truly representative of the studio, so we worked hard to ensure we had access to behind the scenes from across our TV show portfolio & our much-loved feature length films; to really lift the curtain on the studio’s art form, and hopefully inspire the next generation of animators. When we distribute content, we take a bespoke windowing approach per show and ensure that the nuances of each piece of content are considered to maximize the brand value and audience reach. In selecting content for our FAST channel, we took this same approach.
LBB> What clients do you expect to attract with an approach like this? What kinds of brands are more likely to sponsor a FAST channel and why?
Laura> Channel sponsors partner with FAST channels that have contextually relevant content to their brand’s target audience. We know our content is massively enjoyed not only by kids but as a co-viewing experience where parents, caregivers, and just grown-ups generally really love Aardman’s content so the pool of brands who would be suitable for a sponsorship is wider than a pure kids FAST channel with content that might be used more for ‘baby-sitting’ than a shared experience.
Audiences want authentic brand/content collaborations therefore brands that want to feature in a humorous and playful environment will work well with our shows as that thread runs through the whole channel. If a sponsor wants to isolate a preschool or older kids and co-viewing audience to target then that is absolutely possible, as we have blocks of specific age range content throughout the day, so time blocked sponsorship is possible too.
A USP we have at Aardman is that we have a well-respected commercials business as well, so if a sponsor wanted to take an integration up a level, then there is potential for us to create animation EPG overlays or create adverts themselves.
LBB> How will you compete with on-demand TV? Who are the demographics that prefer a FAST channel overpaying to get rid of ads altogether? Or are we entering a new era of on-demand TV where ads won't be so easily avoidable, which puts it at odds with FAST channels?
Laura> Ultimately some audiences will be happy to watch ads and others won’t and will pay for a service without ads, it’s a personal choice. That said, the ad load on FAST is lower than traditional cable companies so less intrusive, plus given ads are contextually relevant to the content, they are less jarring and more interesting to audiences.
We’re in an age where the viewer wants to decide which platform they watch content on. More regularly we offer a brand’s content on a plethora of platforms so that the viewer can choose for themselves. This is particularly important for Aardman as research reports that for kids content the more platforms a brand is on the bigger the overall views. Keeping a brand entirely gated to certain platforms can be limiting in such a fragmented market. Kids need to see repetition of IP to help with their brand recall, especially in such a crowded market with lots of interesting shows vying for attention. A thought-out windowing strategy could mean that earlier seasons of a mature IP are not exclusive to one platform whereas the newer seasons are likely to be more restricted on platforms. Using library shows to help communicate where our new content is available in each market is a helpful tool and something we leverage via our YouTube business.
Specifically in the US most leading FAST platforms also have AVOD content, so we’re offering both on demand and a linear channel in the same platform environment, increasing the ways for audiences to access content whichever way they want to.
LBB> What could some challenges be when starting a FAST channel and how can they be best overcome?
Laura> In today’s market, one of the biggest keys to unlocking efficient and profitable content exploitation - across any rights - is robust metadata, digitally optimised artwork and ensuring the right legal clearances are present across all the content you aim to exploit. I’d say having these in good shape before you start a FAST project will help ensure a smoother transition.
It’s worth acknowledging that kid’s content monetisation on FAST is challenging due to a smaller pool of advertisers so factoring that into forecasts is important. Viewers are watching FAST platforms, and advertisers are using FAST as part of their campaign mixes but there is room for growth here for sure.
LBB> What do you expect for the channel in the next coming year? What are you most excited about?
Laura> We’re producing some great digital first series content for a YouTube and FAST audience; jumping on trends we see working well in this space. It's fun, high quality and taps into the themes we see performing well in this space. We’ll also be releasing fascinating behind the scenes onto our FAST channel of our upcoming feature length movie; 'Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl', out this winter on the BBC in the UK and Netflix Globally.
Plus, we’re rolling out our channel onto even more FAST platforms throughout the year, reaching more audiences with our great content.
