Marketers Eye Online Video for 2009

Marketers in the US will take a closer look at online video in 2009, according to a survey conducted in December 2008 by PermissionTV. More than two-thirds of respondents said they would focus their budgets on online video this year.

More than one-half of respondents also expected to be implementing or extending an online video project in Q2 2009. Less than one-third said they were doing so currently.

Notably, e-mail was missing from the ad tactics respondents were asked about. Matt Kaplan, vice president at PermissionTV, told eMarketer that survey participants were not asked specifically about their e-mail budget plans. Although the tactic is a staple of nearly all digital marketing campaigns, spending on e-mail is far lower than for many other formats.

eMarketer estimates that spending on online video advertising will grow to $4.6 billion in 2013, representing a more than sevenfold increase from the $587 million spent on the format in 2008.

More than four out of five Internet users will watch online video ads in 2012, eMarketer projects, up from the two-thirds who did so in 2008.

Online video ads are expected to change the nature of online video inventory as well. As ad-supported video grows, the balance of the inventory will tilt toward longer-form content, according to a Diffusion Group study.

This supports the view that more full-length TV content will be viewed online with ad support. The study projected that in 2013, long-form video will represent 69.4% of ad revenues, up from 41.6% in 2008. In the same timeframe, the share of short-form video will decline to 28.7% from 54.8%.