Insights
New research shares the keys to In-Stream Video Ad effectiveness
Evolving video consumption patterns represent a new opportunity for marketers. Twitter’s new video ad solution performs as well as, and in some cases better than, a leading video platform.
As more people consume video on mobile devices, their habits are predictably changing: Consumers are no longer passive viewers. They’re curators, watching what they want, whenever they want, on any device they want.
These consumption patterns represent a new opportunity for marketers. And a major challenge, too. How do marketers reach their customers at scale and align with premium, brand-safe video content?
Access to premium video content, at scale
To help brands make the most of the video opportunity, Twitter introduced In-Stream Video Ads. With this solution, marketers can reach a receptive audience at scale with pre-roll ads, which run before brand-safe videos from 200-plus premium publishers that include the world’s top TV networks, sports leagues, professional news outlets, and publishing houses.
With In-Stream Video Ads, marketers can reach consumers in ways that advance their brand and message. That was our theory from the beginning. But we knew marketers would want to test our theory before investing in our new ad offering, so we worked with Publicis Media.
Testing the performance of In-Stream Video Ads
Publicis Media, one of the world’s largest marketing and communications firms, was the first beta partner of In-Stream Video Ads and was keen to understand how their campaigns would perform. Working with consulting and research firm Kantar Millward Brown, Publicis Media developed a lab environment to measure and compare the effectiveness of pre-roll ads on Twitter versus pre-roll ads on a leading video platform on their most frequent viewing device.
Survey says…
In-Stream Video Ads perform as well as — and in some cases better than — a leading video platform, according to the research findings.
Twitter’s In-Stream Video Ads went up against a leading video platform, and the results showed a strong impact on upper-funnel metrics like ad recall, brand favorability, and purchase intent. Twitter outperformed on another important metric: message association. Lastly, tests showed that In-Stream Video Ads are perceived as equally credible and relevant compared to ads on a leading video platform.
One of the key drivers of this strong performance is that people on Twitter curate their timelines and watch videos that align to their interests. They are coming to Twitter in a receptive mindset, making them open to discovering new content from people, publishers, and brands. In fact, people who use Twitter say their top motivation is to "discover something new and interesting" (from "The Rising Bar of Video," Publicis, C Space Twitter Insiders, US, 2016).
Premium publishers engage with consumers on social platforms, creating a quality content experience for users and an attractive ad adjacency for our clients. In this environment, we’ve seen our Twitter pre-roll video completion rates compare favorably with other pre-roll opportunities off-platform. We are proud to have partnered with Twitter on this new format and are committed to driving future-shaping innovation with our partners to deliver increased impact for our clients.
Before you start your next campaign, check out 5 tips to maximize success with In-Stream Video Ads for creative and campaign best practices.
Methodology
Kantar Millward Brown worked in a lab-based environment to measure effectiveness of pre-roll advertising on Twitter and a leading video platform. Consumers aged 18 to 54 years old were recruited to research labs across the country; all were at least monthly users of Twitter or the premium video platform and were interested in the brand categories tested.
How? Ads were seamlessly inserted into the respondent’s Twitter feed on a provided mobile device and within a leading video platform desktop experience on a provided PC. They were given a long-form survey post-exposure to determine how in-stream video advertising performed on Twitter and how pairing with relevant content improves performance.