GLOBAL: Consumers around the world will spend an average of 67 minutes a day watching online video this year, up from 56 minutes last year, according to new figures from Zenith, a shift that is altering how brands plan campaigns.

The ROI agency’s Online Video Forecasts 2018 report, released today, covers broadcaster-owned platforms, OTT subscription services, video-sharing sites and videos viewed on social media.

It forecast that the daily viewing figure will hit 84 minutes by 2020, with China (105 minutes), Russia (102 minutes) and the UK (101 minutes) significantly above the average.

This rapid rise in consumption is leading to a shift in the way brands plan campaigns across both television and online video, Zenith reported.

They are cutting out television spots that lead to very frequent exposure among heavy television viewers, and using online video to target – and retarget – light television viewers.

By using television and online video together to cut out both overexposure and underexposure within the target audience, brands are therefore able to maximise recall at a reduced price, it said.

The balance of spending is shifting accordingly; currently online video advertising is around 14% of the size of television advertising, but because television is stuck at 0% to 2% annual growth, this fraction is rising rapidly.

“By 2020 we expect online video adspend to be 23% of the size of television adspend,” Zenith said.

Putting a dollar value on that, online video adspend is set to continue to grow in double digits from $27bn globally in 2017 to hit $43bn in 2020, by when Zenith expects it will take a 30% share of all online display spending.

It is, said Jonathan Barnard, Zenith’s Head of Forecasting and Director of Global Intelligence, “the world fastest-growing advertising format, creating new strategic and creative opportunities.

“Brands that do not currently have a strategy for online video need to think about getting one.”

Sourced from Zenith; additional content by WARC staff