THE IAB NEWFRONT
After a week and a half full of NewFronts, this afternoon’s Digital Content Newfronts IAB Insights sitdown lunch was extremely refreshing. The luncheon’s sponsors—YuMe, Sharethrough, MillwardBrown and UNRULY—were there to educate us on some of their proprietary research and observations on the video marketplace, rather than pitch us.
Kristina Sruoginis, IABs Research Director, talked about the importance of the Digital Content NewFronts, pointing out that digital ad revenue (now at $4.2B) has tripled since 2010. Specific to original video content, the average annual spend has more than doubled since 2014, and 8 out of 10 advertisers have increased their original digital video content post exposure to NewFront innovations. Kristina also put the kibosh on the myth that the number of U.S. adults watching original digital video monthly are too small for brands to care. According to one of their recent studies, 26% of the US adult population watches original digital video at least once a month.
EXPLORING NEW VIDEO AD LENGTHS
A frequently asked question today is around the length of digital video ads. Does size really matter? YuMe’s Paul Neto, Director of Research believes that the answer is ‘Yes’. He stated that nearly 50% of consumers exposed to a :05 ad recalled it, however, favorability and intent were inversely affected by the length of the ad. They also found that the shorter content/ad formats performed far better on smaller screens (i.e. mobile phones), while longer formats performed better on laptops and PCs. However, this rule did show a bit of bias depending on the current level of awareness of the brand pre-campaign; newer brands greatly benefited from longer formats in terms of recall and comprehension across all screen sizes.
WHAT MILLENNIALS LOVE, HATE AND WANT FROM VIDEO ADVERTISING
We can probably all agree that Millennials are the golden calf of target audiences today; so the insights that Devra Prywes, VP of Marketing & Insights at Unruly, provided were quite valuable. Here are the 10 key takeaways:
1. Millennials are 12.2% more likely to consider ad blocking, so we need to be respectful of ad formats by not forcing views or sound and looking to purchase video based off engagement.
2. Receiving messaging in oversaturated/high frequency ad environments negatively impacts perception even if the clutter is not directly caused by your brand.
3. 84% of millennials say that they are likely to mute ads; therefore the first frame and captions/subtitles/headlines are critical.
4. Most are likely to enjoy ads that are relevant; relevancy is defined as their interests— not their Internet browsing habits.
5. 74% of millennials say that they lose trust if an ad feels fake.
6. Millennials will share ads that they like. Making an emotional connection is a big benefit to brands.
7. Millennials like to feel happy and inspired. Men are most receptive to inspirational tones while women are most responsive to warm tones in messaging.
8. Zeitgeist is the top reason millennials share video content. Knowing what’s trending and how to authentically align with it should be something brands become more mindful of.
9. Millennials migrate across devices frequently but still love their laptops-so while developing formats that are mobile friendly, don’t discount the laptop/PC.
10. Millennials want control over the ad unit-when to watch, skip, mute, share, enlarge, minimize, etc. are all things we should consider as players and pods become less restrictive.
THE MILLENNIAL PERSPECTIVE ON NATIVE ADS AND THE MOBILE CONTENT EXPERIENCE
Most advertising has a respect problem; meaning that our ads are highly disruptive (and not in the fun buzz word way we like to use it when planning our campaigns); because of this, native advertising solutions have risen to the top of most advertisers when it comes down to digital video distribution tactics. Native advertising has become the predominant video strategy on social media platforms, according to Frank Maguire, Head of Development at Sharethrough. It’s no surprise that 80% of millennials prefer native formats in their social feeds as opposed to more intrusive formats. The overwhelming majority of millennials state that they discover content in their social feeds/streams as opposed to on direct publisher destinations. What’s even more shocking here is that 60% of them admitted that they ONLY read the headlines and don’t click on the article or even read the preview of the articles or watch the full video.
While in-feed auto play is now expected by this audience, the belief seems to be that “You Don’t Need to Read a Story to Know What It’s About.” If this is the case, it means that brands must be incredibly diligent in crafting headlines that grab the user’s attention but also drive the message home (and not click bait headlines). Sharethrough has actually developed a public tool to help brands determine how effective their titles are (www.headlines.sharethrough.com).
Raymonde Brillantes-Green, VP/Director of Partnerships & Investments, DigitasLBi