Digital Ads Top TV, Could Be All That TV Content on YouTube

Christophor Rick - REELSEO

Video didn’t quite kill the radio star, nor has digital killed the television star. In fact, according to some new findings, TV content might be part of the reason that digital ads have surpassed its namesake. Have we finally come to terms with everyone and can now expect a peaceful co-existence between television and digital? Let’s find out…

Digital Ads Beat TV

Now that’s not to say that digital video ads beat TV ads in terms of dollar amount spent. In Q4 2013 digital ads topped $12B for the first time ever which put 2013 at a total of almost $43B meaning more money went into it than went into television which pulled in $40.1B. A slim margin of $2.7B. Ha! Slim!

Cable (which is non-broadcast channels) pulled under $35B and then there’s a major drop off into the non-video-based ad formats until you get to the very bottom for video games and cinema.

YouTube Prime Player for Prime Time

A MipTV keynote from YouTuber Alex Carloss talked about the awesome viewing leap that TV content has seen on the world’s largest video site. He cited a whitepaper from Think with Google which looks at the impact that digital has on TV including things like fanship and viewing.

Speaking of viewing, TV-related content viewing time on YouTube is up 65% since last year and views jumped up 35%. Search for it is up 54% and engagement activities grew slightly more.

Meanwhile, TV-related search on Google rose just a lowly 16%. So is YouTube a driving force for TV content interaction? It would appear so. But what is driving this dramatic rise in TV viewer love for YouTube?

Mobile Viewing

Well, of course, it’s mobile viewing! That’s the major force in almost all digital video, advertising and marketing these days. Mobile phones, smart phones, tablets, fablets, phonelets. You name it, people are picking it up, carrying it and using it to watch video. No longer are we tethered to our desks or TVs or game consoles.

The impact of mobile is clearly evident, search volume for TV-related content more than doubled in a year at YouTube.

There’s a near 50/50 split for quick searches on Google across 17 categories. Essentially, they state, small screens means small info searches. Desktops and tablets get watch-related queries, so they are looking for longer content there.

While viewers continue to turn to multiple devices for television-related content, the query growth across Google and YouTube in the television category is driven by mobile and tablet, exceeding 100% on both of these devices.

Creators Get in Front of YT-TV Trends

Creators on YouTube know their business and when they see an uptick in TV, they make more TV-related content. Clever, creators. They are outstripping “official channel” uploads by a margin of seven to one with their related videos. For something like, on, I don’t know, Game of Thrones, it’s entirely possible that it’s up to an 82:1 ratio. Honest Trailers named 4.5M views on a GoT video. Boom!

That article at Think with Google is very, very informative. It talks about a great many factors in terms of digital and TV playing nice together and how the prior really ties into the latter. Of course, this could be all part of Google’s plan to position YouTube as the go to place for TV ad dollars online. Remember, TV Up Fronts for fall are coming in June…