It has been a long time coming but we can now say with growing confidence that digital video advertising is, at last, becoming mainstream. In fact, it’s accelerating faster than any other digital channel, according to ZenithOptimedia’s Global Ad Spend forecast, having jumped 34% in 2014 and predictions suggest it will continue to grow 29% per year until 2017.
The emergence of more advertising formats coupled with better cross-device measurement tools has no doubt driven this growth and now advertisers are increasingly banking on online video as a key part of their overall marketing mix.
A quarter (25%) of UK media agencies said that video featured in the majority of their proposal requests last year, up from just over 15% in 2013. This shows the rapidly growing importance of video to marketers and brands, particularly when you consider this figure stood at just 4.5% in 2011. This is one of a number of findings from the BrightRoll 2015 UK Advertising Agency Survey that show digital video has really come of age as an advertising platform.
This is driven by a number of key factors. Here, we’ve highlighted five of the most interesting takeaways from our research:
1. Online video advertising is effective
Well over half (57%) of the 70 top UK agencies surveyed thought online video advertising is equally or more effective than TV advertising, while just under a quarter thought it engaged audiences more effectively. Video is a great way to engage audiences on mobile devices, which consumers are spending more and more time using. This is because it is the only medium that can overcome the hindrance of small and variable screen sizes, as it always completely fills the screen. This is backed up by recent research that shows two-thirds of millennials would rather watch a video from a brand than text, according to Animoto’s Online and Social Video Marketing Study.
2. Completed views and brand lift are the metrics that matter most
When asked what was considered to be the key measures of success from a digital video campaign, UK agencies voted completed views as the strongest metric, with 31% of respondents citing it as a key measure. Meanwhile, brand lift came a close second at 28%, showing that agencies are looking for more tangible brand benefits from their advertising. Click-through is still relevant, but its importance is lower amongst agencies, with only 8% of the vote.
3. Confidence in programmatic is growing
By automating the video ad buying and placement process, technology has fuelled the huge growth in the medium, as well as improving targeting. The fact that the majority of agencies are now convinced of video advertising’s effectiveness has clearly encouraged more investment in programmatic. The proportion of respondents who plan to dedicate most of their digital video budgets to the technology rose to 18.8%, more than double the figure in 2013.
4. Targeting tops the list of digital video benefits
Programmatic’s potential to facilitate more accurate targeting of video advertising was seen as the most valuable aspect of the medium by 44% of respondents. Reach came second with 33% of the vote, while the value of digital video was also revealed by the results, with 10% of agencies believing that its price, relative to TV, was its most valuable asset.
5. Mobile and tablet spending are poised for growth
Almost two-thirds (65%) of agency respondents agree that mobile video is where they expect to see the largest increase in digital media spend, followed by mobile display (39%) and desktop video (34%). Another interesting insight from a mobile perspective is that 92% of respondents are likely to dedicate video ad budget to tablet devices.
This all ties in with a recent consumer study from our parent company Yahoo – which found that more than 90% of consumers now watch long-form video on digital devices. Furthermore, nearly half of consumers watch long-form content on their smartphones.
It’s easy to forget that ad tech is still a relatively young category, especially when it comes to programmatic video, but the future potential for automated, targeted and measurable video advertising is tremendous. As digital video advertising continues to experience huge gains in spend and viewership and with agencies already behind it (as our research showed), what comes next for digital video is incredibly exciting.
By Patrick Kelly, Director of Agency Sales, BrightRoll
Originally posted What’s New In Publishing 29 July 2015