Online video advertising is on the rise, but the medium will grow rise faster as consumers watch more long-form programs online, eMarketer Senior Analyst David Hallerman says.
That’s because longer content is more attractive to advertisers. “With a four-minute clip from a baseball game, you can have maybe a 15-second ad and that’s not much money,” Hallerman said. Also, advertisers are still more comfortable backing TV shows and longer programs online, he said. ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni has similarly noted that growth in long-form video consumption will grow the market because the longer people watch, the more advertising opportunities there are. The average Internet user is watching 3.5 minutes at a time, ComScore has said.
Overall, online video advertising will grow at a 40% clip this year and for the next few years, outpacing most other ad mediums, Hallerman said to Andy in the interview.
That increase would bring online video ad spending to $1.1 billion this year and $4.1 billion by 2013. Other estimates place total spending at a smaller amount: media agency Magna projects Web video will corral only $699 million this year and won’t reach $1 billion until 2011.
Despite the different projections, researchers agree that Web video will remain a rare bright spot and continue to outpace other mediums. But, the recession is still affecting Internet TV, and its growth this year is well below last year’s more than doubling of dollars, Hallerman pointed out.
Even so, “forty percent growth is excellent in this economy,” he added.
Daisy Whitney, Senior Producer
Video Transcript
Andy Plesser:
So David, let’s talk a little bit about forecast, what you’re seeing, any marketer in terms of online video advertising going forward?
David Hallerman: Well, going forward it’s really the only area of major growth for online video in this economy. As of early April our projection was for about 40% growth for online advertising this year and a similar range over the next few years. When you consider by the IAB numbers from, which is our benchmarking and benchmark of most researchers, that video advertising grew by 126% last year, that 40% growth is…excellent in this, in this poor economy and that’s not going to be changing any time soon.
Andy Plesser: And in terms of the advertising that people wanna be around, the kinds of content, what content sells? What’s appealing to advertisers?
David Hallerman: Advertisers want a lot of the same trusted content as they want on the TV space. I mean, one of the key problems for growth is not just that a lot of the short content that people watch online you can’t monetize at all, whether user created or really pirated from TV shows, but even short professional content. You know, you have a four minute clip from a baseball game, you can have maybe a 15 second ad and that’s not that much money and therefore longer content online, especially when the online and the TV space become mixed as you’re streaming through IP to your television that’s gonna be a linchpin. It’s gonna be a mix of of content on multiple spaces that is gonna be supporting the future growth, not pure internet, web-based alone.
