Online video and TV are being increasingly put under the microscope by advertisers seeking to gauge their comparative effectiveness, even if they should perhaps be seen more as complementary than as mutually exclusive platforms. Nevertheless, research suggests that online video is favored over TV for the engagement opportunities it provides. What’s the view from the other side? A recent survey from placemedia offers some perspectives.
The study indicates that 89% of advertising professional responding to the survey find that TV impressions are more important than online video impressions. Skeptics may believe the results biased, given that placemedia touts itself as a company that helps advertisers “leverage the undisputed brand building power of TV with improved audience measurement and accountability they’ve come to expect online.”
Rather than quarrel over potential bias, it’s more illuminating to see why these respondents prefer TV. According to the survey, TV impressions are more valuable than online video impressions when an advertiser needs a wide variety of people to see them, with 67% deeming this to be the case. This clearly seems to be the main advantage of TV to the respondents, with far fewer seeing TV as more valuable when advertisers want to create anticipation for an event (27%), when they want to show that “they have arrived” as companies (23%), when they want to build excitement (23%), when they want to make sure the entire video has been watched (19%), and when they need an immediate response (13%).
In a way, the responses confirm that TV and online video should be viewed more as complementary than in competition, each with its own set of advantages and drawbacks. TV’s tremendous consumption and influence are clear, but online video currently is similarly lauded for its targeting abilities.
That discussion runs in parallel to online and offline advertising in general. Research released by Forrester earlier this year found that advertisers believe that online trumps offline advertising for its more accurate targeting.
Respondents to the placemedia survey agree, with 88% saying there are benefits to better targeting in TV advertising, including better delivery of a message that relates to their viewers’ interests (57%), more effective use of advertising resources (42%), better use of advertising dollars (42%) and increased ROI (38%).
About the Data: The survey was conducted online by uSamp on August 14, 2013 among 264 US advertising professionals.
