Commentary

Ads Latch Onto One-Quarter of Videos Now -- CPG Dominates

This much is a given: We’re all seeing more online video ads in the programming we watch digitally. But how much more, and where are the ads coming from?

I did a little digging and pulled together some information. You’re not imagining that you have more time in between programming. In fact, the number of ads in digital video content has grown by nearly two-thirds year over year.

In its most recent report, comScore said that in December about 23% of online videos had ads in them. That compares to 14% from December 2011, representing a 64% increase in the volume of ads attached to video on a year-over-year basis. Also in that period, the time spent watching video ads rose 58% -- from 1.2% of all minutes spent viewing video online, up to 1.9%.

So who’s responsible for this bounty of ads?

For the answer to that question, let’s turn to online video technology provider Videology, which compiled data from the fourth quarter. The company reported that consumer packaged goods continue to drive a large portion of online video dollars. Specifically, CPG companies accounted for about 24% of the online video ad spend in the fourth quarter, Videology said, drawing on nearly 2.4 billion video ad impressions it served in the final quarter of 2012. Automotive marketers comprised 13% of video ad spend, and retail nearly 12%, which itself is a 5% rise from the prior quarter. Financial services accounted for about 8% of video spend, travel 6% and electronics nearly 5%, with restaurants rounding out the list at about 4%.

An interesting shift occurred in targeting, Videology noted. For the first three quarters of 2012, the most popular age range to reach was 35 to 44, but in the fourth quarter that shifted to the 45 to 54 demo. I’m willing to bet that shift was related to holiday marketing, as advertisers perhaps chose to target an age group with a bit more disposable income for gift buying.

Videology said that 23.4% of ads in the fourth quarter were geared toward the 45 to 54 demo, and 22.7% to the 35 to 44 group. Next in popularity was 25 to 34, with 18.7% of ads aimed to reach this group.

3 comments about "Ads Latch Onto One-Quarter of Videos Now -- CPG Dominates".
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  1. Dianne Morris from ZestNow.com, February 21, 2013 at 4:39 p.m.

    It's time to start measuring the buying power and ad targets for women over 55.
    Shouldn't we pay attention to the demographic shift in the U.S. population? We think so at www.ZestNow for Women 50 and Forward.

  2. Pete Austin from Fresh Relevance, February 22, 2013 at 6:02 a.m.

    This is only for Americans and excludes non-streamed video, GIFs, flash animation, games, Facetime, and probably things like iPlayer. In other words, it's only legacy video formats in a single country. It excludes most of the videos that I personally watch, so I'm not sure how relevant this is.

    I see about 100x as many GIFs as long-form videos,

    A video is defined as any streamed segment of audiovisual content, including both progressive downloads and live streams

  3. Pete Austin from Fresh Relevance, February 22, 2013 at 6:03 a.m.

    ^ Edit fail. Sorry. Should have said: This is only for Americans and excludes non-streamed video, GIFs, flash animation, games, Facetime, and probably things like iPlayer. In other words, it's only legacy video formats in a single country. It excludes most of the videos that I personally watch, so I'm not sure how relevant this is.

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