Ad Buyers Expect TV Plus Digital Video Spend To Increase

At next year’s Digital Newfronts, media buyers want presenting publishers and networks to remember three little words: Wrap it up! A clear majority (74%) of buy-side attendees of this year’s Newfronts expressed a strong desire for shorter event times. (Presenters might cap the number of exciting new programs they plan to reveal.)

Despite the constructive criticism, however, one in three media buyers who attended this year’s Newfronts said it positively impacted their plans for digital video ad buys, according to new findings from the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Some 78% of buy-siders reported walking away from the week-long event with at least one new opportunity for their company or a client.

Also of note, 64% of ad buyers with responsibility for multiple media platforms said they anticipated their “TV plus Digital Video” buys to increase over the next year.

Capturing a general sense of optimism about the future of digital media planning, 70% of agency and marketer attendees said it is likely that buyers will shift more budgets away from TV and into digital video over the course of the next year.

By the IAB’s count, the media extravaganza attracted roughly 5,000 attendees, about three-quarters of whom reported attending three or more events.

Among a total of 17 presenters, this year’s Newfronts featured pitches from AOL, Yahoo, CBS Interactive, Condé Nast Entertainment, Disney Interactive, Google, and Hulu.

Absent from the IAB’s new report is any mention of ad dollars committed during this year’s Newfronts. In the runup to the event, it was predicted by some that advertisers would commit as much as $1 billion in ad buys. Yet attendees of a recent OMMA Video conference considered that figure laughable. “They were smoking something,” said Mike Bloxham, executive director of the Media Behavior Institute.

“We still book digital advertisers months and months after [the NewFront],” said Chris Raleigh, senior vice president, cable and cross platform ad sales at The Weather Company.

“I think that’s hilarious,” Alexis Josephs, vice president of East Coast Sales at VEVO, said regarding the idea that advertisers would put up upwards of $1 billion in digital money so fast. “For us, it’s unfair to think that you’re going to convert immediately after the NewFront.”

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