Business

IAB Report: Marketers, Agencies Eye Potential of Digital Video Ads

The Interactive Advertising Bureau says both advertisers and marketers are seeing major growth potential for ads in the digital video space. It's a topic being explored at IAB's Digital Content NewFronts event in New York City this week.

If you’re not already thinking of an effective digital video advertising strategy, you may find your marketing team or ad agency pushing you in that direction in the coming months.

That’s the takeaway from a new Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) study, which found that both marketers and agency executives have increased their spending on digital video advertising by 66 percent since 2013, to a total of $10.3 million split among the 305 respondents. The “Digital Content NewFronts: Digital Video Spend Study” further reveals that 68 percent of marketers and agency executives plan to boost their digital ad buys over the next 12 months—with particularly robust growth expected from agencies.

The study found that while digital video ads offered benefits for advertising reach, the format has some weaknesses, including return on investment compared with other types of media (cited by 45 percent of respondents), price (43 percent), and content quality (42 percent).

Nonetheless, the association was bullish on the findings.

“This study demonstrates unequivocally that digital video is a fierce competitor for advertising dollars,” Sherrill Mane, IAB’s senior vice president of research, analytics, and measurement, said in a news release. “Brand advertisers and media buyers have been dramatically increasing their commitment to digital video, so all signs point up for this captivating form of storytelling.”

The study’s release corresponds with the Digital Content NewFronts this week, the group’s annual event focused on new digital content and advertising options. The gathering has been full of big announcements thus far: On Wednesday, Hulu announced that it had acquired the rights to stream every episode of Seinfeld, as well as sealed an exclusivity deal with AMC for the cable network’s stable of future shows—quite a coup, considering that AMC is behind major hits such as The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad.

The study comes on the heels of another IAB report noting that online ads drove nearly $50 billion in revenue last year—a 16 percent surge over 2013. The strongest growth areas included mobile advertising, social media, and digital video.

(iStock/Thinkstock)

Ernie Smith

By Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. MORE

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