ExchangeWire Research’s weekly roundup brings you up-to-date findings from around the world, with additional insight provided by Rebecca Muir, ExchangeWire, head of research and analysis. In this week’s edition: lack of premium video is holding back industry growth; 57% of senior marketers highlight skill shortage within the programmatic advertising industry; mobile increasingly used to view longer-view videos, and mobile increasingly used by consumers, whilst desktop remains main method of purchase.
Video ad budget to continue growing over the next two years
Video advertising has shown strong growth recently. However, often the majority of budgets are given to video broadcasters rather than networks or exchanges. An increase in the number of ad formats offered by broadcasters is facilitating growth in this channel and recently there has been much speculation about the extent of this growth. Recent research by Forrester, commissioned by Teads found that 70% of agencies and 77% of advertisers indicated that their video spend will increase within the next two years. However, the report highlights that the ambiguity and differing opinion within the sector of what constitutes ‘premium video’ is holding back growth. Marketers are using premium video inventory to ensure that they minimise the risk of fraud and poor viewability, greatly minimising the ad opportunities available to them. The continued levels of growth within the market rely on a number of factors, with increased availability of premium video inventory (46%) being cited as the top growth factor.
Although there is debate within the sector as to what constitutes ‘premium’ ad inventory, there is clearly an increasing demand for it, a CEO of a global advertising agency said: "How do we define premium? This is not easy to answer. Realistically, everyone has their own methodology." One way of increasing the availability of premium inventory is by incorporating outstream advertising in the media-mix. Of those surveyed, 85% of agencies and 82% of advertisers in North America believe that outstream advertising will form an increasingly important part of their media-mix in the future. Media companies within Latin America (81%) were most likely to view outstreaming to be gaining importance, followed by Europe (67%), and the US (63%). Seventy percent of advertisers believe that outstream advertising opens up more inventory allowing them to buy programmatically, with 60% of media companies stating that it has enabled them to open up programmatic trading.
57% of senior marketers highlight skill shortage within the programmatic advertising industry
For a long time programmatic has been seen as a direct response channel, with little consideration of the brand uplift that can be achieved via programmatic buying. However, new research by eConsultancy, in partnership with Quantcast, reveals that the majority (62%) of marketers are using programmatic advertising campaigns specifically for branding, as opposed to using direct response. Sixty-four percent of respondents believed that programmatic offered increased efficiency, considering it as one of its key strengths. Whilst 56% of respondents highlighted that the ability to target audiences in real time was a key benefit.
Furthermore, 57% of senior marketers either ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘somewhat agreed’ that there is a skill shortage within the programmatic advertising industry. However, 46% of respondents indicated that their programmatic spend outstripped their real-time bidding budget. Data privacy concerns (23%) and difficulty providing return on investment (23%) were highlighted as the top two reasons restricting growth within the sector.
The full report is available to eConsultancy subscribers here.
Mobile increasingly used to view longer-view videos
According to the IAB’s 'Mobile video usage: A global perspective’, users are increasingly viewing longer-view videos on their smartphones, contrary to the belief within the industry that short videos dominate the viewing on smartphones. Thirty-six percent of respondents claimed that they watched videos lasting over five minutes daily on their phone, whilst many others report that they watch tv episodes and even full movies on these devices. One of the fundamental reasons for this is likely to be the increase in popularity of smartphones with large screens and improvements in 3G and 4G coverage and wifi availability.
The uptake of video streaming on smartphones has seen year-over-year increases in all of the nations studied, most notably in the US (50%), Canada (42%), and South Africa (42%). The increased uptake of video streaming on mobile has led to a shift in traditional viewing patterns, with viewing figures down by 37% in China and 35% in Singapore. The research highlights that 22% of people viewing traditional TV are doing so whilst simultaneously watching a video on their smartphone. Anna Beger, senior vice president mobile and video at IAB, raises the point that, "The finding that viewers around the world are now video dual-screening whilst watching TV, points to an emerging challenge for marketers. How do you grab a viewer’s attention when it’s divided between two simultaneous video feeds?"
Viewers are predominantly accessing mobile through apps, with 48% of respondents stating that they use apps either exclusively or predominantly for accessing mobile video. These figures are even higher with the UK (63%), Brazil (60%), and Turkey (58%) leading this trend. Across respondents in all 24 countries surveyed, Youtube (62%) was the key way that users discovered mobile video content, with 14% of respondents stating that they discovered video content through advertising.
Read the ‘Mobile video usage: A global perspective’ here.
Mobile used for researching purchases, whilst desktop remains the favoured device for purchases
AdRoll’s ‘Mobile retargeting strategy’ focuses on the recent explosion in growth in the smartphone and mobile market and its implications for marketers. The report highlights that both Facebook and Twitter report that they see more traffic on their mobile platforms than on desktops, with 46% of UK users accessing these platforms on mobile. The increasing time spent on mobile devices has led to a shift in the way that consumers access and purchase online. Consumers are using the convenience of mobile to extensively research their purchases, with Google finding that 93% of those that use their mobile to research products do purchase the product. Research by comScore highlights that although consumers are increasingly using mobile platforms to research purchases, desktop remains the favoured device on which to purchase, with 79% of consumers purchasing using this platform, with only 25% of consumers purchasing on their smartphone.
This finding poses the question, why are consumers moving between platforms when researching and purchasing online? The simple answer could be the ease of which purchase occurs on desktop and tablet, with an increase screen size users may find the navigation of purchasing easier. Moving forward, bridging the gap between users' experience of desktop, mobile, and tablet will become of increasing importance to provide cross-platform, personalised retargeting. By retargeting mobile visitors who have already shown an interest through their smartphone activity, consumers can be driven back to desktop or tablet sites to complete their purchase.