Creatives are failing to see the real potential of online video advertising. That’s the opinion of industry high-ups despite figures showing that online video consumption is growing substantially and will continue to do so in 2012.
In the most recent PwC IAB Online Advertising Expenditure Report, online video advertising had outpaced the general market growth, increasing 31% year-on-year. Online portals carrying video content ranked highly in the latest Nielsen Online Landscape Review, with YouTube racking up more than 9.3 million unique browsers for March 2012 and Yahoo!7 just over eight million. Both made the top 10 websites by unique browsers for the month of March.
However, the Nielsen study also shows 54% of Australian consumers found online video advertising to be “somewhat irrelevant”, with only 2% finding them highly relevant. MCM Entertainment chief executive Simon Joyce was particularly vocal on the subject. The company has just helped launch music video portal Vevo in the Australian market and is hoping for better online video ads.
“Not many agencies are well structured to maximise video creativity with the technology and data-driven environment that IPTV offers,” Joyce said. “A large proportion of online video advertisers are just using their TVCs, which is generally not the best approach.
"We are at the tipping point. Agencies must take the strategy seriously. Creative agencies just aren’t doing enough right now.”
Tim Buesing, Publicis Mojo creative director of digital and experience, shared Joyce’s view. “Every creative wants to expand what they can do online,” he said. “But people are being lazy about it. Doing straight-up made-for-TV ads online, for example, which is really irritating. You’re playing around with the value of the brand you’re working for and you’re missing out on opportunities. I don’t see anything funny about that.”
The opportunities for online video are only going to grow with the rollout of the national broadband network (NBN) to major metropolitan areas. Online video will be unleashed on bigger screens as bandwidth allows for HD streaming and the majority of TV sets become network-capable.
IAB Australia chief executive Paul Fisher agreed. “I recently heard an industry executive state that 25% of all TV sets sold in Australia are internet-enabled and that only 25% of those are actually connected to the internet,” he said. “But it will grow. Online video advertising is the talking point for 2012 and for good reason.”
This article first appeared in the 4 May 2012 edition of
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