“Emotion is always going to be one of the most important components of brand building — not just from a memorability point, but also perception and action,” said Craig Hughes, vice president of corporate development and strategic partnerships at Outbrain.

“For advertisers, the challenge with audio and video advertising — which often has broad reach, but still fairly sophisticated targeting ideals — is being very specific about who they work with and how they work with those partners and publishers,” he said. “For users, if you’re consuming a message and you’re consuming that message in an environment you trust, that message has significantly more impact on you.”

Publishers are investing more in video content

While publishers have invested heavily in video to varying success in the past, short-form video is especially important for publishers and advertisers looking to attract younger audiences.

According to the 2022 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 39% of consumers ages 18-24 use social media as their primary news source, while 34% opt for news websites or apps. The Reuters Institute report also found that 17% of consumers ages 18-24 “mostly watch” the news versus “mostly read” the news online, citing the ease, convenience and engaging content as their top reasons they prefer video.

Advertisers are also drawn to video because of improved performance with audiences.

Per research from Wyzowl, 92% of marketers believe that video will play an essential role in marketing over the coming years. Additionally, according to Statista, spending on video advertising is expected to grow at an annual rate of 12.06% from 2022 to 2027, for a projected market volume of $318.8 billion by 2027.

“There’s no medium that comes close to video in terms of having an emotional impact, engaging people, immersing people and being able to tell a story,” said Hughes. “Video is also much more accountable in driving and measuring performance than it was, so we’re seeing huge value, huge impact and continued investment.”

Why video will become critical to brand awareness

While video is more complicated and time-intensive to produce than other mediums, the investment is worthwhile for both publishers and advertisers, according to Hughes — especially when there is pressure to cut or reshuffle budgets.

“From an advertising point of view, being able to lean into areas where your competitors are withdrawing creates a huge opportunity for brand building,” Hughes said. “The ability to deliver emotional storytelling through video and then measure brand uplift of these ads continues to advance. There are also better opportunities to connect upper-funnel efforts, where video historically was, to the bottom of the funnel in terms of driving someone to take an action.”

Advertisers …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron