Online video spend to grow in 2012

A number of reports point to a rosy immediate future for digital video in the UK, with BrightRoll expecting online video to see the largest increase in digital spend over the next year.

The claims come from the results of a survey of 100 media agencies that are involved in the UK video industry.

Thirty eight per cent said that online media would represent the largest increase in digital media spend, compared to 22 per cent for social media and 21 per cent for mobile video.

Almost every company surveyed also agreed that online video provided value to clients, although under half admitted conducting this research. "This disparity reiterates that there is work to be done to properly educate the industry on how research can bridge the gap between traditional advertising and the newly forming digital landscape," argued the report.

According to the report, spend for more traditional media may lag by comparison to video, with only four per cent expecting the biggest increase in media spend to occur on television and six per cent on display advertising and search.

The news comes as Experian Hitwise released its own white paper showcasing an increasing demand for online video in the UK. Entitled Online Video: Bringing Social Media to Life, and summarised on a YouTube video, the research says September 2011 saw 785 million visits to video sites within the UK – a jump of 36 per cent – and it's estimated that 86 per cent of the UK's internet population visits a video site at least once a month.

YouTube and iPlayer are reportedly the dominant services, with the former enjoying about 70 per cent of all video visits and the latter achieving a 22 per cent rise in traffic compared to September 2010.

The report echoes the findings of BrightRoll, concluding that online video represents an opportunity for driving traffic and an opportunity for marketing, with half of users visiting at least three different video sites per month.

"While YouTube dominates the market, the increase in traffic to video-on-demand and more niche sites demonstrates that content is what matters most to today's Internet users and they'll go to whatever site has the content they're most interested in viewing," remarked Experian Hitwise marketing research analyst James Murray.