Agencies, Brands See Big Potential for OTT, Cross-Device Measurement in 2019

A new Integral Ad Science (IAS) survey Digital Pulse Survey results this year have shown some surprising facts.

IAS surveyed 912 digital media professionals in a wide swath of roles including brand, publisher, advertiser and agency in November-December 2018. The issues covered in the questions were about trust, transparency and innovation and the respondents were asked how these issues would impact their focus and budgets in 2019.

The survey revealed that in 2019, marketers see great opportunity in over-the-top television (OTT) and cross-device measurement. Nearly half of the marketers surveyed said that OTT (measured at 45%) and cross-device measurement (placed at 45.5 %) offered them the biggest opportunities. Most agencies saw promise in multi-touch attribution modelling at 54 % and OTT at 53.7 %. But results say brands are still reluctant to fully embrace OTT. Rather, they have found more potential in cross-device measurement at 50.8 %. For brands, AI/Machine Learning and video both take a higher slot, at 49.2 %, and OTT takes a lower place at 44 %.

Responses to the survey also established that while ad fraud is not the topmost challenge for marketers any more, they still have some fears, and it still occupies the forefront of marketers’ minds. Interestingly, this is the first time the survey has included OTT as an option, and results clearly acknowledge a shift in how consumers use media.

According to the results, marketers are still concerned about many things, with data privacy and ad fraud the biggest among them. But while ad fraud is still at the top of their list, less than half of the marketers surveyed this year said it was their biggest concern. This year, ad fraud placed at 46.2 % compared to last year’s scores of 61.8%.

For marketing professionals, almost 70 % are planning to invest more resources and/or budget in OTT over the next year.

The opportunities identified by marketers in cross-device measurement and multi-touch attribution modelling have a very real concern for them – the measurable advertising focused RoI. More than 75% of the brands said faulty attribution is the single biggest threat to their ad spends in 2019. The biggest concern for agencies was fraudulent impressions at 69%, closely followed by attribution at 66%. Media quality and brand safety were also big concerns for agencies.

Though there were concerns over measurement and attribution, data privacy is the solid top priority for marketers. All brands and agencies agreed that data privacy takes the top slot, as is clear from the firm stands being taken by GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act.

Though there are concerns over issues such as measurement, attribution and brand safety, marketers are continuing to buy programmatic ads. According to estimates from Emarketer, and reports from Innovid, these ads and Connected TV continue to take a top slot in budgets for marketers, and figures over the last few years show increases by leaps and bounds. Thought CTV has been known to have transparency issues, the industry will continue to keep pace with new technology solutions and newer and more innovative products in the market.