More Than Half of Buyers Are Shifting Some Linear Ad Spend to Connected TV

After a day of NewFronts panels in which multiple presenters talked about consumers’ accelerated migration from linear to streaming during the pandemic, the Interactive Advertising Bureau released its annual video ad spend study, which indicates that many buyers are starting to shift some of their broadcast and cable ad spend to connected TV. More than half of buyers said they are moving some of their linear ad spend to connected TV, which includes several of the companies that presented during Monday’s NewFronts, like Roku, Tubi, Hulu and Crackle Plus, according to the IAB U.S. 2020 Digital Video Advertising Spend Report: Putting Covid in Context. The IAB released the report during a NewFronts presentation today In the survey of 350 marketers and agency executives—who are involved in digital video advertising decision-making at a company responsible for at least $1 million in total ad spend last year—53% of buyers said they are moving broadcast ad dollars to CTV, while 52% indicated they are shifting cable ad spend. Unsurprisingly, the IAB found that connected TV has been least impacted by Covid-19, and CTV ad spend is expected to remain stable during the pandemic. Video advertising on desktop, meanwhile, is predicted to be the hardest hit in 2020 of all digital ad spend. “Connected TV has proved to be resilient during the global pandemic, taking share from traditional TV budgets,” said IAB president David Cohen in a statement. “Buyers are not only following consumer attention, they are flocking to CTV because it is the perfect marriage of high-quality content, superior targeting, in-market optimization and robust measurement.” [article_summary section="1"]The average CTV spend for 2020 is expected to reach $16 million per advertiser, according to the report. The largest CTV categories, in annual spend per advertiser, are retail ($32.2 million), media/entertainment ($31.9 million) and telecom ($20.6 million). The report's findings come after Samsung Ads said during its Monday NewFronts presentation that streaming now accounts for the majority of consumption across its U.S. footprint of over 50 million smart TVs. By the end of Q1 2020, streaming took up 58% of time spent on those TVs, while linear viewing accounted for just 42%, Buyers said brand safety was among the most important criterion when selecting digital video brands and publishers (86%), followed by premium content (82%) and clear ROI measurement (80%). Programmatic in-housing continues to grow, up a whopping 64% year over year. The study also found that social media “story” formats—videos that disappear after 24 hours—are expected to increase 62% year over year. Other ad formats seeing increases include augmented reality advertising (up 33%) and shoppable ads (a 21% increase). The entire report can be found here.