Advertising agencies have high hopes for the new year, with 43% saying they expect business to increase in Q1 2017, according to a new report by media technology firm Strata. In contrast, only 11% of agencies said they expect a drop in business.
To close out 2016, Strata’s analysis of the Q4 ad market shows that video is the dominant advertising medium, with 34% of agencies saying their clients are focused on TV and local cable advertising, followed by digital video in second among ad vehicles at 27% of client focus; that last figure is up 79% from a year ago. This marks the first time that digital video has ranked as the second most-popular advertising category, Strata reports. Display, the former second-place medium, fell to third with only 15% of client focus.
Ad agencies are growing more comfortable with programmatic buying as well, with 36% of agencies saying they’ll dedicate 10%-20% of budgets to programmatic, a 33% increase over Q2 2016. Another 27% of agencies said they’ll allocate even more to programmatic, between 20%-40%, which marks a 43% increase over Q2.
Social media marketing, another hot ad vehicle, continues to grow, but not at quite as rapid a pace. Most agencies reported to Strata that that they’ll dedicate only a fraction of budgets to it. While that represents a smaller portion of client marketing spending, Strata notes that social media spend continues to grow at a double-digit pace. Facebook is the most popular social channel for advertising, commanding 94% of client spending, followed by YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. Snapchat was No. 6, but is fast growing, with more than 20% of agencies now planning to use the messaging app, a 58% increase from Q2 2016.
“At the end of a year that could be defined as turbulent, if nothing else, one of the upsides we’re seeing is the swift reversal in agency outlook and confidence. Earlier this year, we found that agencies had major concerns about budgets and revenue, but we’re now seeing much more optimism heading into 2017,” Strata vice president Judd Rubin said in the report.
Rubin added: “We’re excited to see how this new confidence impacts advertising strategies next year. Local and cable video continue to be the top focus, but digital video is increasingly coming to the forefront. With mobile advertising and rapidly growing social players like Snapchat also making strides, 2017 could prove to be a very exciting year.”
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Ad agencies are growing more comfortable with programmatic buying as well, with 36% of agencies saying they’ll dedicate 10%-20% of budgets to programmatic, a 33% increase over Q2 2016. Another 27% of agencies said they’ll allocate even more to programmatic, between 20%-40%, which marks a 43% increase over Q2.
Social media marketing, another hot ad vehicle, continues to grow, but not at quite as rapid a pace. Most agencies reported to Strata that that they’ll dedicate only a fraction of budgets to it. While that represents a smaller portion of client marketing spending, Strata notes that social media spend continues to grow at a double-digit pace. Facebook is the most popular social channel for advertising, commanding 94% of client spending, followed by YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. Snapchat was No. 6, but is fast growing, with more than 20% of agencies now planning to use the messaging app, a 58% increase from Q2 2016.
“At the end of a year that could be defined as turbulent, if nothing else, one of the upsides we’re seeing is the swift reversal in agency outlook and confidence. Earlier this year, we found that agencies had major concerns about budgets and revenue, but we’re now seeing much more optimism heading into 2017,” Strata vice president Judd Rubin said in the report.
Rubin added: “We’re excited to see how this new confidence impacts advertising strategies next year. Local and cable video continue to be the top focus, but digital video is increasingly coming to the forefront. With mobile advertising and rapidly growing social players like Snapchat also making strides, 2017 could prove to be a very exciting year.”
Learn how you can become a National Media Broker Here