MUMBAI:  A Nielson report has now confirmed what many believed of the growing ad spends in the digital world. The study has found that digital ad spends have now eclipsed traditional marketing budgets of brands.  The report also says increase in digital media budgets are poised to jump considerably over the next 12 months. However, over the top (OTT)services have to go a long way to win over marketer.

The responses for the report were gathered through in-depth interviews of marketers and extensive surveys of  marketing executives from across verticals. The goal was to identify their most valued digital media channels categorised as social media, search, mobile, programmatic, OTT-TV/Connected TV(CTV).

Important digital media channels

Social media and search engines are considered extremely important by marketers . 79 per cent of respondents ranked search as “very” or “extremely” important, while 73 per cent thought the same about social media. A large majority also considered online video (64 per cent) and email (59 per cent) to be critical.

 Surprisingly, while a bunch of OTT platforms are mushrooming worldwide, marketers showed least reliance for OTT or Connected TV (CTV). Fewer than 8per cent of respondents considered it extremely important (and 18 per cent very important) at this point. Nearly 25 per cent of respondents ranked it as “not so” important or “not at all” important to their current media strategy.

Effectiveness of digital media channels for business:

Other than zeroing in on the most important digital channels, the report also found effectiveness of each of these digital media channels. Again, search (68 per cent), social media (68per cent) and mobile (59 per cent) were ranked as “very” or “extremely” effective by a large section of respondents.

Only 28 per cent of marketers ranked OTT TV/CTV as a “very” or “extremely” effective channel, the lowest among the individual categories. Over 30 per cent of respondents have yet to dedicate media budget to OTT TV/CTV. Over time when these channels will be more established, that number may decrease.

“We are moving more and more toward [digital] marketing...social, search and [display] advertising driven. But we have just begun so the confidence in results is still being analyzed,” the report quoted one anonymous respondent.

“Respondents reported digital media as representing 37.6 per cent of total advertising spend. This is remarkably similar to the percentage of advertising budget dedicated to traditional media (when calculated the same way), which was only a percentage point off at 36.6per cent,” the report read.

However, the next 12 months are  going to be very different. 82 per cent of respondents agreed that digital media spend is going to increase, with only 4 per cent forecasting a decrease. Respondents expect a  49 per cent increase in digital media budgets in the next 12 months, with some even suggesting a higher spike.