Brands will increase their spending on video content by 25% this year as the ad industry makes its first steps towards becoming a “mobile-first ecosystem”, a new study published by IAB UK and PwC has found.
Advertising is becoming more smartphone-centric than ever before, according to the “Digital Study: The Market Grows”, and is now the primary growth driver. Smartphone advertising generated an additional £1.65bn in 2018, a rise of 35% from the year before, and now represents more than half of all digital ad spend.
The latest study also found that content and context are now “crucial for attracting audiences”, which means that brands are striving to deliver the best-quality experiences and materials to build stronger brands in the long term. “Mobile-first” will also be a major trend for the foreseeable future.
Tug UK Managing Director James Cragg added: “There is no reason to doubt this trend will continue as advertisers design their media, creative, and targeting strategy with mobile at the heart – optimising performance, enhancing the customer experience, and delivering the best results.”
For advertisers, video has now usurped standard display banners as the single biggest display format with a total value of £2.307bn. Advertisers are also set to spend £18m on video in 2019, with many looking to produce premium original video.
While advertising is typically focused on a hard sell and delivering brand messages to a rented audience, which differs from the idea of content marketing and the goal of providing value for the end user, ads can often complement content campaigns to maximise traffic.
