In their study on The Australian Online Video Market, Frost & Sullivan report there has been an explosion of online video viewing in Australia over the past 3 years with 2 billion videos streamed in 2007 to 11 billion this year. Australians are now averaging 10.2 hours of online video per month and this has been attributed to more & cheaper bandwidth, higher data caps, internet capable TVs & great choice of content. In addition to this, the ever increasing uptake of portable devices (smart phones, tablets & laptops) has lead to an increase in viewing of video on the go and at the office.
Correspondingly, Frost & Sullivan predict that Australian internet TV advertising will grow by 476% over the next 5 years. With an under supply of advertising inventory (long form content being the most popular) and an ever increasing demand, online video advertising which forms only 2% of total online ad spend will continue to accelerate.
While internet video viewing is on the rise, free to air and subscription still remain high. For brands the opportunity lies in supporting their TV spend with and online video investment which has proven to postpone the reach & frequency plateau. A recent Nielsen study on the effect of TV & Digital on the Personal Care sector demonstrated a 4&% recall of brand message for those exposed to online video & TV vs only 17% for those exposed to TV only. Another opportunity for brands is to spend 100% of their TV spend on internet video to achieve optimum reach & frequency when available marketing budgets are too small to support an extended period on TV. Due to the much lower average CPM of online video versus TV advertising, smaller budgets can achieve greater longevity & reach online. According to a cross-media effectiveness study run by TNS Australia on a beauty brand in 2010, internet TV can be just as effective as TV for all stages of the purchase funnel (promted awareness, top of mind awareness & intent to purchase).
Lastly - we love infographics here at TheFARM so I had to share this one: Cutting the Cable: The State of Internet Based TV (these are US stats but relevant none-the-less)
