• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 2, 2011

A recent study conducted for Casale Media, by Advertiser Perceptions, found that spending on Digital Video Advertising (DVA) is expected to increase by 25% in the next 12 months, accounting for 23.8% of total online ad budgets, which is up from 19.1% of total online ad spending 12 months ago.

That is not to say that advertising agencies and marketers do not find the process of planning, creating, and executing a digital video advertising campaign to be easy, says the report. The study uncovered that 38% of those surveyed find the planning phase to be difficult, 40% find the creative phase to be difficult, and 35% find the execution phase to be difficult.

If a media company can assist an advertiser / agency in overcoming these barriers, or provide a third party solution to simplify execution, they would find themselves with a significant competitive advantage, says the report. 31% of respondents would book video all of the time if all barriers were removed.

Marketers and agencies agree that DVA is attractive for communicating, strengthening and building awareness of brands, products and services. According to the study, increasing awareness of brands, products and/or services is the top reason to use DVA, more so for agencies vs. marketers (85% vs. 71%, respectively).

The majority of spending comes from marketers with at least five years of online or digital media advertising experience. The remainder are confused by the process of evaluating and purchasing digital media. When buyers become educated on how to overcome these obstacles, they will be far more enthusiastic about integrating targeted and trackable digital media efforts with television reach and efficiency.

A previous eMarketer study indicated that more than 85% of respondents would be likely to shift ad dollars from TV advertising to digital video advertising if it were easier to get faster turn-around time and lower costs for creating, launching, and tracking digital video advertising campaigns, as well as simpler means for putting an overall plan into place.

In this Casale study, more than half of marketers and media planners, (52%) indicated that they found the planning phase to be difficult. More than four in ten respondents who find planning a digital video campaign to be difficult said that the most difficult part is either:

• Media Negotiations: Get the best placements and pricing (46%)
• Develop campaign objectives and goals (41%)

Four in ten respondents indicated that the creative phase is difficult and, of those, nearly 60% said that “Creating an ad unit that allows me to understand how consumers are interacting with my brand” is difficult, and half said that either “Implementing ad interaction metrics” was a challenge, or creating “Multi-video displays within single ad unit” was difficult.

The report concludes by saying that online, interactive DVA gives advertisers the audience and analysis they demand. While television can specify audiences that might like a certain type of programming (sports, soaps, news, etc.), digital video advertising can guarantee audience, reach, frequency of delivery, with very specific demographic and lifestyle targeting. For instance, Facebook users offer an average of 220 points of personal data and interests on 700 million users (50% of whom log into Facebook every day). Even compared to traditional website data and analysis, interactive DVA provides a marketer with the opportunity to reach and target specific audiences.

Joe Casale, CEO of Casale Media, says "When it comes to video, many online advertisers still perceive online video as the Wild West because it continues to evolve and grow, but without giving publishers and advertisers enough control."

For additional information, please review the release here, or the full research report can be downloaded here