As video advertising continues to go from strength to strength, brands have been advised that web browsers are far more receptive to native video formats than striking yet controversial pre-roll placements.
A recent survey conducted on 1,600 respondents from the UK and US proves that native video advertising, defined in this case as clips opening up in the middle of editorial content, are resonating well with everyday users of the web.
Native gains traction
Commissioned by online video technology firm Ebuzzing in partnership with The Guardian and Nielsen, the survey shows that 70% of consumers believe native video ads are the most effective at proving that a brand is innovative.
Not only this, 54% of consumers are declaring their fondness for native ads, 55% are considering them fun to watch, while 35% will typically play them all the way through.
Ad recall is also high for brands investing in the native approach, with 74% of browsers remembering exactly which company attached their name to these placements.
Contrastingly, despite playing directly before a pre-selected video clip, just 59% of the group said same about pre-roll ads.
A sure-fire hit
Commenting on the results, Ebuzzing’s UK General Manager Jeremy Arditi was full of praise for the way native video advertising has connected with consumers.
“Native formats are the least disruptive to the user experience and the most engaging in terms of related content and visual design,” he commented.
“Embedding appropriate video content within the relevant quality editorial environment creates a format that users are happy to interact with, and more specifically, a format they prefer as they actually choose to engage with the content.”
The insights may come as a surprise to the many advertisers that are expected to up their online video budgets in the not too distant future.
A recent survey from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) discovered that 65% of advertisers will spend more on digital video advertising in 2014 than last year.