Brightroll did some research over in the UK to see how video advertising is getting on there and it seems that stiff upper lip mentality is working for them as things are really picking up. The second annual survey and report, the 2012 UK Video Advertising Report, gathers insight from more than 100 top decision makers and media buyers at leading UK advertising agencies and shares their unique perspective of the UK video advertising landscape.

As with all Brightroll surveys, things should be weighed carefully before making any decisions. After all, it’s a survey and included a small fraction of the industry as a whole. With that said, let’s get onto the numbers.

Video Advertising Reach Rises in the UK

Around 63% of the UK population watches a video online each month. That’s a pretty good reach. Meanwhile, about 65% of that audience sees video ads monthly which is around 28.6 million people who are seeing a billion ads a month (comScore).

Part of why those numbers are all on the rise is because more advertisers and agencies believe in its efficacy. 87% surveyed believe it more effective than display and 52% believe it better than TV. Brightroll attributes some lower numbers to a confusion as to what digital video is. Maybe more ReelSEO reading is necessary?

Some of these beliefs could be attributed to the often made assumption that VOD (video on demand) and digital video are one in the same. However, digital video encompasses more than just VOD and includes in-app, user-generated content, gaming, or anywhere video can run.

When it comes to digital video advertising, many UK advertisers may spend their budgets specifically on VOD, working directly with broadcasters. In fact, when asked who they are most inclined to buy video inventory from, 41 percent of respondents indicate they are most likely to buy video inventory from a broadcaster with 22 percent who are most likely to buy from an ad network.

Where Are UK Video Advertisers Placing Inventory?

A lot of those UK companies are advertising outside of the country. A good amount of ad networks are placing ads in the US and Canada, while publishers are looking to Germany and the US for their main purchasing areas. Broadcasters are the ones doing the most buying in the UK itself followed by ad networks.

Click for larger image.

Considering that a lot in the UK think of digital video in terms of VOD it’s not all that surprising that the broadcasters are leading the ad buys there right now. It must be them trying to lure the online video viewers away from the short-form online content they’re watching because the average time spent with a video is 5 minutes and only 5% of videos online are from the UK broadcasters. Clearly they might feel threatened.

What Matters to UK Video Advertisers?

When looking at the how and why of ad placement, targeting tops the requirements with over 50% saying that’s most valuable. Reach was just around 37% and then everything else was minimal, including price versus TV.

Meanwhile, ad spend is usually based on cost-per-view (CPV) with CPM (cost-per-impression) second and engagement third.

It seems that if you’re offering video ad placement and hoping to reach UK advertisers you’ve now got a pretty clear picture of what to offer them and pique their interest. CPV with excellent targeting would be the ideal one-two punch of features for them.

In fact, demographic targeting is the most often desired form of targeting at 35% while behavior is used by 25% and contextual is around 20%. Data and geographic were lower at 15% and 5% roughly.

Measuring the Success of Video Advertising

Determining the success of an online video advertising campaign is usually campaign or company specific. In the survey they found that for the most part it’s views (30%) that are the measurement. Hovering near the 15% point are conversion, brand uplift and CTR with Sales impact at about 10%.

GRP isn’t all that popular there which is telling since most of the ads seem to be placed by TV broadcasters. I suppose that goes hand-in-hand with that targeting over reach from the previous graph.

UK Taking Shots in the Dark? Need Guidance

The odd thing is that it seems like the UK online video ad industry is groping blindly to figure out what works best. 90% of respondents said research is vital to success, but 70% stated they had done no research. To me it almost seems like throwing money down a hole and are simply following the trend without bothering to figure out how to do it right.

The crazy thing is that when talking about barriers to online video advertising, the cost of video is the largest one for them. Just over a third cited that as the most limiting factor. Clearly, they didn’t do any research because they would have found great video ad creation platforms like ViddyAd (in beta) and places like PopTent for crowdsourced video creation, just to name a few alternative options to production company made video content.

There are far more insights in the full 2012 UK Video Advertising Report which you can pull from the Brightroll Industry Report page.