4 Video Advertising Trends to Watch
Over the past few years, video has migrated beyond TV, reaching people in more personalized and engaging environments. Digital video ads have become new and exciting ways for marketers to deliver highly targeted messages directly to the eyes and ears of key consumers, making it a vital part of any successful marketing strategy.
In 2017, eMarketer expects digital video ad spend to grow 24% to more than $13B, with almost three-quarters of all video ad dollars transacting through programmatic pipes.1 To further explore the top trends facing digital video advertising today, Oath partnered with Ad Perceptions to survey 251 advertisers and agencies. Here are the four main themes that we discovered:
Time spent with connected devices has grown rapidly in recent years, resulting in a persistent decline of traditional TV viewing—especially among people younger than 35.2 With digital video, marketers have a powerful storytelling tool at their disposal that can efficiently reach key audiences across devices.
This combination is causing TV video ad budgets to shift to digital. In fact, 56% of our advertising partners said they are likely to move TV ad budgets to digital video in 2017, while 71% felt digital video was as or more effective than TV.3
To meet the growing expectations of today's consumers, every aspect of marketing, including video, is moving toward personalization, targeting, and interactive content. In fact, a recent survey from Boston Consulting Group found that brands using technology and data to offer personalized experiences are seeing 6-10% revenue increases.
Immersive digital video formats are transforming viewing behavior, taking it from a passive to highly interactive experience. By accessing real-time data and insights through programmatic video technology, brands are beginning to harness the full potential of relevant, one-to-one video connections. Our study revealed that 56% of marketers ranked targeting capabilities as the top benefit to digital video advertising, while 77% of marketers cited the ability to leverage programmatic signals from online behavior as a key driver in increasing digital video ad spend.3
When it comes to data, both brand and agency respondents ranked first-party and demographic data as the most valuable in programmatic audience targeting strategies, followed by purchase and search data.
Mobile video is one of 2017's fastest growing ad formats, arriving on the scene with an entourage of game-changing innovation. Between vertical video, programmatic native, and immersive 360/VR video ad units, mobile's potential to redefine the video advertising industry is endless.
But perhaps mobile's video biggest draw is its massive audience reach. With 72% of the over 231 billion digital video viewers regularly watching video on their smartphones,4 it's no surprise that 66% of our advertiser and agency partners said they are likely to shift TV dollars to mobile video this year.3
As data-driven marketers face growing market expectations, transparent and consistent video measurement options are essential. Despite challenges with mobile measurement, digital video measurement continues to drive ad spend, with 75% of senior level marketers citing it as a leading reason to invest.3 Luckily, with the rise of HTML5, omni-channel measurement is quickly becoming a reality. This long-awaited shift opens the door for more comprehensive attention metrics that look at viewability, engaged time in-view, and ROI.
While these advances are great for digital video, measurement models' lack of standardized metrics across TV, over-the-top services, and digital video continues to be challenge. According to our study, 42% of marketers attribute the lack of comparable measurement for digital and TV as the most significant factor limiting digital video growth.3 However, with TV increasingly becoming more digital and budgets shifting to programmatic TV, advertisers can expect to see a continued effort to bridge the gap between traditional TV's panel-based Gross Rating Points (GRP) and digital's census-based approach.
One thing is clear: in today's multi-screen world, digital video has emerged as a must-have strategy for creating deeper connections with consumers across platform. Marketers have long understood targeted video's unparalleled ability to make an impact; it's just that digital, when combined with programmatic technology, gives us the means to do it more effectively than ever before.
1 eMarketer, "US Digital Video Ad Spending, 2017-2021", Jan 2017
2 eMarketer, "Daily Time Spent with Select Connected TV Devices Among US Consumers, by Age, Aug 2016
3 Ad Perceptions, Yahoo Advertiser Study, Jan 2017
4 eMarketer, 2017 Mobile Stat Pack
