According to a study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), More than two-thirds (68%) of marketers and agency executives expect to see their digital video ad budgets increase in the next 12 months, according to the second annual “Digital Content NewFronts: Digital Video Spend Study,” a survey of 305 buy-side professionals conducted by Advertiser Perceptions and released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
This optimism about the medium comes on the heels of a strong uptick from spring 2013 to spring 2015 in budget allocation to digital video by brand advertisers and media buyers, with the former increasing its commitment to digital video by a whopping 90 percent over that two-year time period.
For the most part, the buy-side expects that greater investment in digital video will come from rising advertising budgets in 2015, and a shift in funds away from broadcast and cable television. Two-thirds (67%) of the survey’s respondents said that they anticipate their broadcast and cable TV ad budgets to stay the same or decrease in the next year.
The study further revealed that two-thirds of marketers and agency executives (67%) believe that original digital video will become as important as original TV programming within the next 3 to 5 years. In order to close the gap between digital video and TV programming, both groups will be looking for digital to demonstrate its ability to develop effective sales and branding opportunities, and produce metrics that are consistent with TV.
In addition, 8 in 10 advertisers and agency executives who attended the 2014 NewFronts agree that their participation resulted in more spending on original digital video content and/or motivated them to increase their 2015 budgets. The marketplace event has been directly responsible for driving more than a third (36%) of buy-side attendees’ spend on original digital video advertising over the past 12 months. This marks a double-digit increase of 24 percent in the NewFronts’ impact on share of spend over the same time in 2013.
“This study demonstrates unequivocally that digital video is a fierce competitor for advertising dollars,” said Sherrill Mane, the IAB’s senior vice president of research, analytics, and measurement. “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 as the industry rallies for the NewFronts.”
The release of the data marks coincides with the 2015 Digital Content NewFronts, a two week event put on by the IAB that features presentations by the industry’s technology and video leaders.
