Performance Pressure on UK Marketers Will Be Answered by a New Wave in Cross-Channel Video Advertising

Aaron Goldman

October 7, 2019

Hard choices seem to define Marketing today. The abundance of high-profile media moments, from the final of Love Island to the Cricket World Cup, combined with the wide range of available platforms, can put even the largest ad budgets under strain. So marketers have to make some tough decisions.

It’s no surprise then that brands are paying closer and closer attention to campaign performance and the cost of attracting customers. In one such instance, Booking.com recently said that it’s “disciplined” approach to Performance Marketing budgets has seen slowing growth across some of its more mature channels, including search. Meanwhile, the company’s spending on brand marketing, which includes TV ads and online video, surged 41% in the second quarter of 2019.

This isn’t one brand bucking the trend. In fact, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of 4C found 79% of marketers in the UK recognise cross-channel Video Advertising – including TV, digital video, social video, and over-the-top (OTT) – as an increasingly important medium.

The Evolution of Video

The study found 77% of UK marketers perceive video is evolving from a mass-reach medium to one that enables targeted reach to more precise audiences. From digital to social, from TV to OTT, video has undergone some huge changes and stands poised to be one of the most precise and powerful tools of the next decade. In a multi-screen world, video stands out for its ability to deliver rich storytelling at scale throughout the customer journey.

In fact, effective use of video can boost business performance in other channels. Across the UK and the US, 7 in 10 marketers report seeing video ads increase results elsewhere like delivering higher organic site visits and increasing position in search results. As such, Forrester Research projects video advertising to grow at a 13% compound annual growth rate between now and 2023 – faster than all other Digital Marketing formats.

The Challenges of Video

For marketers, investing in Video Advertising brings with it certain challenges. For example, 70% of marketers across the UK are aware they simply aren’t flexible enough with creative or budget to quickly adjust campaigns based on insights. Furthermore, 62% of marketers admit their organization lacks any centralized technology to deploy Video campaigns across multiple channels. And 53% acknowledge they struggle with marketing and audience data stuck in silos.

The silver lining is that, unlike when Snapchat and Instagram arrived on the scene, marketers today are more aware of how distinct these platforms truly are and 77% now state that providing consumers with more targeted video content is a very important Marketing initiative for their organization.

Zooming in on Snapchat, from standard Snap Ads to Story and Collection Ads to AR Lenses and Filters, there are a number of different formats with abundant opportunities for deep linking and calls to action. While these take time to master, the first step is simply taking stock of the options. From there brands can test the waters and scale campaigns based on performance data.

Maturing Your Video

Forrester Consulting recommends that marketers evolve their approach by first diagnosing their current state. It’s difficult to know how much insight or Video Marketing reinvention you need without knowing how advanced you are with either today.

Cross-channel Video Advertising presents a very real opportunity to drive business outcomes, but marketers will struggle to take advantage if they lack the capabilities to measure results across platforms and adjust strategies based on those results in real-time.

The means marketers need both a clear insights strategy, which includes greater cross-channel data visibility and improved analytics capabilities, and the means to automatically deploy campaigns responsively across platforms, adjusting and tailoring content around the specific formats in use.

The new wave of Video Advertising is pushing marketers to plan around media consumption and tracking changes in the time and value priorities of their audiences. Effective Video campaigns stem from a continuous, flexible model for Marketing planning, which enables marketers to move budget in or out of media formats based on how customers actually use or respond to the ads.

So take stock of both weaknesses to correct and strengths to exploit, and build a Marketing strategy that accounts for unified cross-channel video. Marketers who can keep pace will thrive through the internal transformation it drives. But make no mistake, those who don’t move with the times will be left behind at great cost to the business.