75% of ad agencies responding to a BrightRoll survey believe that video is equally or more effective than TV, and that’s up from 64% who believed that to be the case in last year’s survey, according to a new BrightRoll report [download page]. Even more respondents (91%) believe that digital video measures up well with display, although they’re less convinced about its effectiveness compared to social media (68%), search (52%) and direct response (45%). The most important aspect of video advertising to clients is its targeting capabilities, according to 45% of respondents, with reach (27%) also valuable. Interestingly, only 10% believe that video’s price relative to TV is its most valuable aspect to clients. The researchers suggest that advertisers are moving beyond simple comparisons between digital and TV, instead comparing advertising categories that incorporate sight, sound and motion regardless of the screen. Indeed, separately only about 1 in 10 said they’d like to see more research into online performance versus TV advertising, down 59% from 2011.
Given their positive outlook on digital video, it’s not surprising that a leading one-quarter of respondents said they expect online video to have the highest growth in media spending this year, with mobile video (23%) close behind. By contrast, direct response (32%), TV (25%), and connected TV (15%) are the categories that respondents expect to see the lowest amount of growth.
Other Findings:
- Asked digital video’s most limiting factor, 1 in 3 respondents said that the price is too high, although the researchers note that that’s a significant drop of 15% from last year’s survey.
- 36% of respondents believe that behavioral is the most valuable form of targeting, and close to one-third say that lifestyle is the type of targeting they expect to use most in their video advertising this year.
- Respondents say that GRPs or TRPs are the audience measurement form that clients value most for video advertising, with this form growing in importance from last year.
- Completed views emerge as advertisers’ most important success metric, followed by brand lift.
- Asked where they’d like to see additional research, a leading 32% of respondents pointed to video’s impact on offline purchase behavior, with the translation of GRP to online video buying next at 23% of respondents.
- More than 1 in 3 respondents believe that around half or more of their digital budgets will likely be programmatic in the next 12 months.
- The leading benefit of programmatic buying for digital advertising is its pricing efficiency (34%), with targeting (27%) also a key benefit.
