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Consumers are spending more of their time with YouTube videos, which represents an opportunity for brands to connect with consumers with a more personal and engaging message.

Nielsen has already reported that when they include measuring YouTube's audience later this fall it will debut as the largest destination for video viewing among all cable networks and video websites - perhaps by a wide margin.  YouTube has 1 billion unique monthly visitors globally and it continues to grow fast.  In 2012 YouTube grew 55%. Television viewing, however, according to Nielsen, was down by almost 7% in the first quarter of 2014 among 18-24-year-old.


There is a new culture developing within the social ecosystem that has been called "Gen C."  Gen C is the YouTube generation.  Gen C describes people who care deeply about creation, curation, connection and community. It's not an age group; it's an attitude and mindset.  While Gen C may not be every brand's target audience, the very notion that this is now labeled a generation underscores how large the movement has become.

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Over the last several years, the TV landscape has changed at an almost frenetic pace. Everything from the shows we watch to the devices we watch them on looks different than it did just a decade ago.  More and more of us own TVs that facilitate choosing from an unprecedented amount of content that we can watch on our terms. In fact, a recent study revealed that the number of American households with Internet-enabled TVs has doubled in just the past four years, from 24 percent to 49 percent.

Connected TVs, however, are just one of a deluge of new products and services that are quickly shaping consumer behavior and bringing about massive change. So much in fact, that the TV viewer of the future will look very different than she does today. She’ll be savvier and more discerning than her contemporary counterpart… and she’ll need to be, in order to navigate the labyrinth of options available to her. Read on for four predictions on what she’ll look like.

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Through our ongoing work with cable operators and programmers on initiatives that range from technical infrastructure evolution to business strategy, IBB Consulting has identified five key trends that will collectively drive the video delivery industry.

Over the next five years, there will be challenges and opportunities that span technological updates, deployment of new services, shifts in the marketplace and the ability to adapt to consumer behaviors.

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Discussion about programmatic buying is plentiful these days, with many calling it "the hottest sector of advertising right now." As brands and agencies continue testing programmatic options across different types of media, questions - and many opinions - remain about how digital and TV can play together in the programmatic space.
 
The reality is that both digital and TV could stand to take some cues from one another to improve efficiencies. It's critical to take a realistic perspective on how these media could best converge, easing the buying and selling processes and advancing the entire ad industry. Adopting such an approach will help marketers execute and measure cross-platform campaigns that, as Unilever's CMO Keith Weed remarked at Cannes, will allow them to "lead with brands and not channels."
 
How can TV buying and planning enhance digital, and vice versa?

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We've all heard the good news: programmatic video is growing fast. New reports showing ambitious predictions are great clickbait fodder for the trade press and all of us video adtech people are happy to bask in these figures.This mojo, however, has been threatened by a raft of publicity around fraudulent traffic being a large part of that growth. And by large part we mean up to 70%. Some of the most important players in the industry, such as TubeMogul, Tremor and Vindico have ramped up their efforts in order to combat fraud but there is a lot more work to do yet.

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Connected TV is still in its adolescence as an advertising channel, but a survey conducted this month by video ad solution provider Mixpo suggests that's all about to change. Mixpo surveyed 130 media buyers and planners and found very strong interest in including connected TV on media plans - and soon.  Some are taking action now, trying to get out in front of a rapidly maturing channel.

"Connected TV" (sometimes referred to as "Smart TV") is essentially internet content brought to the "big screen in the living room." The Mixpo survey defined it as programming, including video advertisements, streamed through OTT devices connected to the internet (Roku, Apple TV, Xbox, Amazon Fire).

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TV is moving to digital - and fast. Today, billions of digital ads are seen everyday by millions of online viewers, yet 99% of those ads are repurposed from television and often measured by traditional TV metrics of reach or gross ratings points (GRP).  Not only is this inefficient, but it also only scratches the surface of measurement’s potential for digital video.  

Last week, our company hosted a panel discussion in New York City with top industry leaders and agency executives to discuss the evolution of measurement beyond the current standard of impressions and GRP. We agreed that using the same success metrics as TV measurement for digital video is insufficient and the true potential of what digital video can accomplish for brands will only be reached when we look at factors such as post-impression activity, increased website visitation, lead generation, and even offline sales. These metrics looked at the broader effectiveness of digital video ads beyond simply reach.

Some of the questions addressed by the panel included: is the industry ready to add more customized measurements what should they be? What challenges do they bring? How can we balance between the need for a standardized measurement unit and customization (the specific needs each brand advertiser)?

It was a great night and I wanted to share some of the key perspectives from the panelists during the discussion:

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In today's connected world, a multi-channel strategy is an important area of focus and logical aspiration: Marketers looking to engage the uber-linked consumer base are hungry for the right recipe. Ad tech suppliers gear more of their development efforts to the cause each quarter, and agencies tout their growing multi-channel capabilities to deliver on its promise. We are believers in the potential to thread messages to consumers on various devices throughout the day via advanced campaign and creative capabilities.

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