Two thirds of Canadian media agency execs polled by Brightroll and the IAB say they think digital video advertising is as effective or more so than TV.
Of 100 agency executives that responded to the survey, 46 said they think digital video is on par with TV, and 21 said they think it performs better.
For its third annual Canadian agency survey, the Yahoo-owned video platform worked with IAB Canada to reach out to some of the top executives at Canadian media agencies to find out where they stand on digital video.
“The response indicates that agencies are aware of the shift in consumer attention across screens and realize the value digital video can offer to reach these fragmented audiences,” said David Bellemare, managing director of platform solutions for Brightroll Canada. “TV is still an effective means of advertising, but digital video, executed through programmatic buying, allows advertisers to extend their reach and to target specific audiences across desktop, mobile, tablet and connected TV.”
Asked what they think is the most valuable aspect of digital video, 46 of the execs polled selected “targeting capabilities.” Another 27 chose “reach,” and 12 said “price relative to TV.”
Canada isn’t without its holdouts, however. About a quarter of those polled said they still think TV is superior to video.
And despite the high number that think video is effective, only 31% of those responding said they include a video component in “the majority” of their RFPs, compared to 48% in the U.S. version of the survey. Though that’s more than the 26% who said so last year, Canadian agencies clearly aren’t shifting to video at a rate that digital publishers and video platforms like Brightroll would like them to.
According eMarketer’s most recent projections, Canadian advertisers are expected to spend $322 million on video in 2015, up 26% from last year. Based on those numbers, video makes up less than 8% of the $4.15 billion that eMarketer expects digital advertisers to spend this year, and less than 3% of total media spend.
That’s in spite of the estimate in PHD’s annual Canadian Media Usage Trends report that online video now accounts for 16% of all the media that Canadians consume.
“Digital video advertising or programmatic video is still a relatively new advertising category, especially when compared to television,” Bellemare said. “The digital world, as great as it is, still has a few areas for improvement. In particular, mobile standards have some catching up to do. Once we see advancements in mobile targeting and measurement capabilities, we can expect to see this 31% significantly increase over the next couple years.”
