NEW YORK: Nine in ten advertisers say original digital video (ODV) programming is critical to media plans, and nearly 60% of digital budgets are allocated to this channel, according to IAB research.

The Digital Content NewFronts: 2018 Video Ad Spend Study was based on a survey of 353 marketer and agency executives online who were involved in digital video advertising decision-making at a company responsible for $1m+ total ad spend in 2017.

More than half of buyers planned to increase digital and mobile video spending in the next 12 months, with the additional spend primarily coming from expanding budgets.

These advertisers will hike spending on these channels by 53% compared to two years ago, to an average of more than $10m annually, the IAB reported.

Investment in original digital video (ODV) programming has also been climbing steadily since 2016 and is expected to surge up to 68% by the end of 2018, with automotive and telecom being the biggest spenders.

“Marketers’ commitment to digital video – especially original digital video – has been skyrocketing over the past few years,” said Anna Bager, Executive Vice President, Industry Initiatives, IAB.

“These findings reflect consumers’ enthusiasm for the dynamic storytelling which original video programming delivers in spades, and the power of the medium to deliver strong ROI.”

The study also found that half of buyers plan to spend more on social media video advertising in next 12 months, while 44% of advertisers indicated a strong interest in buying interactive ads on connected TV.

While video is the immediate focus of buyers’ plans, nearly half said they intended to invest in voice artificial intelligence advertising in the next 12 months, with 44% saying the same about virtual reality.

And, encouragingly for the industry, the great majority of advertisers (83%) thought that cross-platform measurement has improved compared to a year ago.

Sourced from IAB; additional content by WARC staff