2014 was a watershed year for online video advertising in Canada, with an uptick in the use of digital video advertising and programmatic approaches, boosted by a huge leap in confidence towards its effectiveness.
That's the word from the BrightRoll 2015 Canada Advertising Agency Survey, which confirmed that first and foremost, digital video is becoming mainstream.
When agencies were asked what portion of RFPs include a video ad component, 31.3% said that a majority did. That's compared to just 21.3% in 2012, an increase of 47% over two years.
Even more interesting, 67% of agency respondents said they believed online video advertising is as effective or more effective than TV.
Meanwhile, click-thru metrics are still is relevant, but its importance is declining. Agency respondents ranked completed views, conversions and brand lift as the three metrics that mattered most. Also, targeting is a sought-after ability to boost these: nearly 2.5 times more respondents said that they plan to dedicate a majority of digital video budgets to programmatic in the next 12 months.
In fact, almost half of agency respondents report that targeting capability is the most valuable aspect of digital video. That's more than reach, price, format, creative reuse and other benefits combined.
It's also worth noting that mobile and tablet spending are poised for growth too. About 53% of agency respondents agree that mobile video is where they expect the largest increase in digital media spend; 85% of agency respondents are likely to dedicate budget to tablet video.
