Online video advertising market on the up

Video advertising survey reveals growing confidence among media buyers as TV budgets drive growth of market.

Tuesday, 16 March 2010

A survey from Web TV Enterprise has revealed that video advertising now appears on more than half of media plans, and is worth 3 per cent of the UK TV ad market.

Findings from the second bi-annual UK Online Video Advertising Market Report show that over 40 per cent of media buyers now use video advertising campaigns to deliver incremental reach to TV, indicating that TV budgets are driving growth of the market.

The report also found that the number of campaigns being booked has tripled in the last six months, suggesting confidence among media buyers is growing. Some 40 per cent of respondents said they had booked between one and five pre-roll campaigns in the past six months – they had previously booked the same number of campaigns over a period of 18 months. Almost a third (31 per cent) had booked more than ten video advertising campaigns in the last six months.

According to the authors of the report, the developments demonstrate that the growing audience of professionally produced content on the web is beginning to have a significant impact on the market.

Discussing the findings, Jamie Estrin, managing director of Web TV Enterprise, said: “While online video is still in its infancy, the market is starting to mature. Media buyers are recognising the opportunity of placing TV campaigns in front of highly targeted audiences online and reaching light TV viewers who are now regularly consuming catch-up TV and short-form video on the web.”

Despite the number of campaigns growing, average spend on video campaigns remains the same; between £10,000 and £25,000. However, almost a fifth (19 per cent) of those surveyed claimed their average campaign spend was more than £50,000, up from 12 per cent six months ago.

The research also shows that the majority of media buyers – 63 per cent - intend to allocate up to 50 per cent more budget to video advertising in 2010, with 13 per cent allocating more than 50 per cent. Just over a fifth (22 per cent) of those questioned say budgets will remain the same.

Robert Black, chairman of the IAB Video Council commented: "It’s very exciting to see the growth of the market with the increase in current and projected activity. The IAB Video Council hopes that the launch of VAST (Video Ad Standards Template) in the UK, and other initiatives planned for this year, will help make it easier for all stakeholders to do business and increase growth.”