By Hannah Kidson

Commenting on the release last weeks of figures indicating a 10.9% increase in online ad-spend in the UK, Anthony Rushton said advertisers were wary of investing more because of a perception that internet video campaign delivery cannot be independently verified.

“Most businesses across the world today realise that video on internet connected devices is the future for advertising, reaching audience levels only previously attainable through traditional media platforms. Many are hesitating to open the door to this burgeoning digital platform, however, because they are unable to ensure their internet video campaigns are studiously delivered and independently verified,” said Anthony Rushton.

He said the positive statistic of a 10.9% increase in online ad-spend in the last period (measured by the Advertising Association and WARC) was, in many respects, not so positive at all. “With the proliferation of internet users out there, using all sorts of devices, one would expect a much greater increase by advertisers in the use of the medium, particularly in respect of video,” he remarked.

Anthony Rushton said there were thousands of relatively new online ad-serving and delivery companies touting for business, most offering perfectly acceptable services which include tracking video ads and reporting on basic delivery and performance metrics such as “click throughs” and “mouse-overs”.

“That is all well and good, but by focusing on performance metrics only it can often mistakenly be assumed video ads are successfully delivered, well-positioned and viewed by users,” he said.

He described this assumption as the “fragile core of the ad-serving sector”, which was exacerbated by discrepancies and inaccuracies in counting as online video campaigns increased in complexity.

About the author

Hannah Kidson works as PR for Telemetry.