The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Mobile video ad impressions surged 84% in Q4 says Videology report

Author

By Jessica Davies, News Editor

March 12, 2013 | 4 min read

Mobile video impressions saw an 84 per cent hike in the fourth quarter of 2012 taking the total to 18.6 million, according to figures from addressable audience platform Videology.

The report, which marks the second in a series of Videology-led research that will be published exclusively on The Drum, is based on 465 million ad impressions in the UK during the fourth quarter of 2012 – a 52 per cent increase from the 300 million tracked in 2011.

Mobile now accounts for four per cent of overall online video impressions, having risen from three per cent the previous quarter, bolstered by the rise in smartphone and tablet penetration.

Meanwhile behavioural targeting for video, classed as location, daypart and retargeting, jumped from 18.5 per cent the previous quarter to 20.3 per cent, according to the report. Demographic targeting remained the dominant form with 66.2 per cent of video ads targeted using this method, while 13.5 per cent used a mix of both demographic and behavioural targeting.

The majority (91 per cent) of these impressions were geo-targeted, with five per cent daypart targeted and four per cent either socially or retargeted. The number of socially targeted impressions quadrupled compared to the first quarter last year when they only accounted for 0.4 per cent of total impressions, according to the report.

Agencies believe the amount of mobile ad impressions will continue to grow exponentially, Mediacom managing partner Jem Lloyd-Williams said: "Four per cent may seem a small figure but it's an absolutely huge number of mobile impressions and that will continue to rise."

Marco Bertozzi, executive managing director, EMEA, Publicis Groupe’s VivaKi Nerve Center, agreed mobile video will continue to rise driven by tablets in particular. “Tablets are exploding and video will go hand in hand with that and when you think of the likes of Twitter and Facebook all driving video views it can only increase,” he said.

Both also agreed the use of behavioural targeting will continue to rise.

John Tigg, VP of commercial products at Videology, said behavioural video targeting can be a particularly useful method in the final quarter of the year given the typical surge in ad spend in the run-up to Christmas.

“There are a huge load of advertisers chasing after the same audiences in this period so it is vital they use unique ways to find those audiences when they are most likely to engage with those brands, which is where behavioural targeting can come in,” he said.

There is also a definite increase in the amount of bespoke digital videos created compared to repurposed TV assets, according to Tigg.

“Advertisers are also becoming increasingly aware of how video can be used as a sales mechanism in its own right – you can put a direct call to action in a video ad that you can’t in the offline world. We definitely see more made-for-digital creative rather than repurposed TV creative as well as a growth in the amount of interactive video ad units used,” he said.

The report also broke out video ad impressions by vertical with telcos seeing a 259 per cent year-on-year increase to over 44 million, while financial services also rose 196 per cent to over 35 million. Consumer goods saw a 60 per cent year-on-year rise to 83 million ad impressions, while entertainment rose 20 per cent to over 101 million – the largest category.

The number of video ad impressions served on connected TVs took a hit in the fourth quarter, falling from two per cent in the previous quarter to one per cent of all impressions in the fourth quarter.

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +