FreeWheel: more addressable, data-driven premium video growing ever stronger
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 23 July 2019

The Q1 2019 version of the Video Marketplace Report from advertising management solution provider FreeWheel has revealed a rise in targeted and addressable advertising as publishers and marketers increasingly look to efficiently reach audiences.

The long-running survey is released quarterly and highlights the changing dynamics of how enterprise-class content owners and distributors are monetising premium digital video content. found that in Europe, there is a focus on data-driven targeting and automation as a growing number of publishers adopt an audience-first approach. Total ad views were found to have grown 13%, but live ad views increased by 78% year-over-year. Audience targeted campaigns also grew above the market growth rate, rising 56% as publishers increase the use of data to make premium video addressable.

Premium video inventory across set-top box video-on-demand (STB) and connected TV (CTV) demonstrated the power of the big screen, together accounting for the largest share of ad views at 45%. There was also an ongoing drive towards shorter ad breaks revealed. Total ad break durations were around 94 seconds and there was an average of four ads per midroll break, with 42% of all midroll breaks containing two ads or less.

Significantly, programmatic was shown to have experienced significant growth, increasing 31% year-over-year – four times the rate of direct sales – as publishers strive to automate and drive efficiencies in the buying process. However, premium video still makes less use of programmatic channels than the wider digital video ecosystem, where 74.1% of digital video is traded programmatically.

The addition of more live inventory was furthering the scale of premium video with the share of live ad views now twice as large as that of Q1 2018. Desktop leads the devices used to view live premium video with over two-fifths of live ad view and a quarter of campaigns were shown as being audience targeted.

“Premium video displayed strong ad view growth, particularly in audience targeted campaigns,” commented Thomas Bremond, general manager, international, FreeWheel. “Data-driven advertising is changing the way advertisers and publishers approach premium video, as a growing number adopt an audience first-approach. With continued improvements and advancements to the tech stack across multiple endpoints the outlook for premium video looks very promising through the rest of the year and beyond.”

The full report can be downloaded at: https://www.freewheel.com/insights/a...premium-video/