Video ads still sidelined in marketing mix: Sizmek

The open ad management company for multiscreen campaigns released its latest edition of the Sizmek Index, this time examining video advertising adoption and trends across several consumer verticals.

The report found that out of 4,000 advertisers that served in-stream video ads or rich media ads with video over a three-year period, only 18 percent used both.

However, the report, which analyzed video ads from the first half of 2013, 2014 and 2015, illustrates that video in general is becoming a much bigger part of marketers’ strategies to engage their audiences.

From 2013 to 2015, digital ads including video rose from 9 percent to 15 percent, marking a 40 percent increase in just two years’ time.

Andy Kahl, director, research at Sizmek said that video has become an exceptionally important medium for brands today, and marketers have more choices than ever, from the more passive in-stream to engaging rich-media ads with video.

“This study shows that although there has been swift adoption of the medium, most marketers are still learning how to effectively execute a digital advertising strategy that comprises multiple types of video,” he said. “There is still a lot of opportunity for marketers to reach new and existing audiences with content outside the realm of a repurposed television spot.”

Key findings:

• Video ads in the first half of 2015 had a start rate of 62.5 percent, up from 40.5 percent in the same period of 2013.
• The Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Entertainment and Auto verticals leveraged video ads the most (22, 20 and 10 percent of all video ads served, respectively).
• There is opportunity for video in rich media advertising, as nearly 11 percent of ads served in 2015 were rich media, but fewer than 5 percent of those rich media ads included video.
• EMEA saw the most growth since 2013 at 160 percent, North America saw the most growth in video in 2015 at 52 percent, followed by APAC, at just under 50 percent.

The complete Sizmek Video Index can be viewed in full here.