Only 112 Publishers Offered Vertical Video Ads in Q1: MediaRadar

Vertical video ads get a lot of attention, but not that many publishers have adopted the format. In a Q1 2017 trend report, advertising intelligence company MediaRadar finds that only 112 sites offered them. Verticals ran on both desktop and mobile sites, with 15-seconds being the most popular length.

For the moment, verticals are confined to the select few who are willing to try something new. MediaRadar CEO and co-founder Todd Krizelman describers the sites offering verticals as sophisticated and willing to fund innovation. Publishers trying out vertical include Condé Nast, Time Inc., Hearst, Vox Media, AOL, Business Insider, and NBC Universal.

While 15-seonds is the most popular length, there's a lot of experimentation taking place with verticals. Krizelman notes that MFS Investment is testing a 90-second vertical, while other brands are keeping spots to 5 seconds.

The entertainment space is most interested in verticals, running 39 percent of all vertical video ads this quarter. TV and movie marketing are the most aggressive on the emerging format. For examples, MediaRadar points out these vertical campaigns for Patriots Day and Taboo.

Trailing media by a wide market, apparel (9 percent) and retail (7 percent) ran the second and third most number of vertical ads.

MediaRadar's data comes from a review of over 100,000 ads run since January 2017 to see if they contained vertical video.

"It's still early days for vertical video. Publisher scale has been low because it's a new format with several barriers to entry. Publishers need resources—money, talent, and technology—to build out their capabilities," Krizelman says. "This is why larger and more sophisticated publishers have been the format's earliest adopters. However, as mobile media consumption increases, expect more publishers regardless of size to make vertical video a priority."

The chart below shows which industries ran vertical video ads in Q1 2017.

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net