Publishers Say Video is the Next Great Thing

AOL surveyed three hundred publishers in the UK and the United States to identify the effects of data and automation on their businesses. Most of the respondents chose video as the top revenue driver for 2017. Fifty six percent of the US publishers, and more than 50 percent of the UK respondents, named better-quality creative videos as the primary reason for this expected change.

Other explanations publisher gave for the increased status of video were better load times, improved user experience, and interactive ads. Of those surveyed, 53 percent thought that improved personalization and targeting of video ads will contribute to their growth.

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Digital Ads are Largely Ignored

The widespread disdain of ads was demonstrated by British research firm Lumen. Lumen mounted eye-tracking cameras on the laptops of 300 consumers. These cameras collected visual data that revealed what online users looked at. Over a six-month period, Lumen recorded some 30,000 minutes of data, during which time about 15,000 digital ads appeared on the screen.

In total, users noticed only 35 percent of digital display ads, and of that small percentage, only 9 percent earned more than one second’s worth of the users’ attention! Ads barely registered as more than a blip on the screen.

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