Think Video: Part II

Why advertisers are gravitating toward publishers that embrace video?

Publishers are meeting advertisers’ needs by increasingly leveraging video as storytelling and monetization tools. Not only does video attract the younger users that advertisers seek, but these formats also allow brands to run more emotionally resonant campaigns than other ad choices offered by digital publishers.

Publishers are investing more in video content?

While publishers have invested heavily in video to varying success in the past, short-form video is especially important for publishers and advertisers looking to attract younger audiences.

According to the?2022 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 39% of consumers ages 18-24 use social media as their primary news source, while 34% opt for news websites or apps.

The Reuters Institute report also found that 17% of consumers ages 18-24 “mostly watch” the news versus “mostly read” the news online, citing the ease, convenience and engaging content as their top reasons they prefer video.

Advertisers are also drawn to video because of improved performance with audiences.?

Per research from?Wyzowl, 92% of marketers believe that video will play an essential role in marketing over the coming years. Additionally, according to?Statista, spending on video advertising is expected to grow at an annual rate of 12.06% from 2022 to 2027, for a projected market volume of $318.8 billion by 2027.

“There’s no medium that comes close to video in terms of having an emotional impact, engaging people, immersing people and being able to tell a story,” said Hughes.

“Video is also much more accountable in driving and measuring performance than it was, so we’re seeing huge value, huge impact and continued investment.”

Why video will become critical to brand awareness

While video is more complicated and time-intensive to produce than other mediums, the investment is worthwhile for both publishers and advertisers, according to Hughes — especially when there is pressure to cut or reshuffle budgets.

“From an advertising point of view, being able to lean into areas where your competitors are withdrawing creates a huge opportunity for brand building,” Hughes said. “The ability to deliver emotional storytelling through video and then measure brand uplift of these ads continues to advance. There are also better opportunities to connect upper-funnel efforts, where video historically was, to the bottom of the funnel in terms of driving someone to take an action.”

Advertisers are also using video to compress the consideration funnel with the help of customer datasets. For instance, a brand can reach a consumer that has previously shown interest in purchasing a car with a video ad that includes a call-to-action to book a test drive at a local dealership.

Audio and video ads also fit into the mobile-first, feed-based content experiences that younger audiences prefer. This user-centric approach adds to the appeal for advertisers wishing to reach consumers where they are most engaged.

“The most exciting things in video today are improved engagement and high-quality editorial video content that allows us to do a lot more with engaging ads,” Hughes said. “We can do a really important job of helping engage the right users with the right components of that broad spectrum of advertiser offering, including podcasts and video.”

Original Article published on Digiday, here.