Digital branding software company TubeMogul says Australia’s programmatic video advertising market is leading the world in quarter-over-quarter inventory growth.

This comes as brands move swiftly to optimise their spend and reach consumers across devices.

The company said the dramatic rise in programmatic mobile video ad trading and the adoption of sophisticated technology, including the programmatic direct model of buying video ads, underpinned substantial market growth in the second quarter in Australia.

The TubeMogul Australia State of Programmatic Video report provides inventory data derived from brand campaigns that ran through TubeMogul’s video ad buying platform in the second quarter of this year, ending June 30.  The report showed that Australia led the world in percentage mobile growth, increasing from an average of 16 million programmatic auctions in the first quarter to more than 86 million auctions in the second quarter.

Australia also had the largest percentage growth in available desktop programmatic video pre-roll inventory, jumping 101% over the previous quarter, to more than 232 million auctions. In addition, Tier One available video inventory jumped 81% from the previous quarter.

“These market growth numbers are impressive and Australia is now firmly placed as one of the most innovative programmatic digital video advertising markets in the world,” said TubeMogul co-founder and CEO Brett Wilson. “TubeMogul has operated in Australia for more than three years, and the level of sophistication and adoption in this market continues to impress us.”

He added: “Large corporate and consumer brands have embraced programmatic direct and mobile and we expect that growth to continue at a rapid rate. We have secured some of our largest advertising agency trading desk deals in Australia.”

Wilson is in Australia this week to attend the second annual TubeMogul University Asia-Pacific Summit in the Southern Highlands region of Bowral, which will be attended by more than one hundred executives from the region’s programmatic video, brand, ad-tech, and digital markets.

TubeMogul Australia Managing Director Sam Smith said the data showed that agencies, brands and technology providers in Australia were working closely together and were at the forefront of introducing new branding optimisation technology.

“The Australian programmatic digital video advertising sector has matured in a short space of time and adoption far exceeds that of many other larger markets,” said Smith. “The emergence of new software such as the ability to track if your video ads are being viewed by consumers, is providing brands with more certainty about the value of data-driven video advertising.”

Smith said the programmatic direct model, which allows advertisers to retain ownership of their first-party audience data while simultaneously allowing publishers to retain control over inventory pricing, was now proliferating in Australia.

The TubeMogul Quarterly Report said that video ad inventory purchased directly from publishers through programmatic channels reached 79 million impressions in Australia in the quarter, beating out the U.S. market, which registered 72 million impressions.

Smith said: “The Australian programmatic video market is driven by innovative ad agencies and their programmatic trading desks, who are valuable partners for TubeMogul.  We look forward to deepening our relationships with our agency partners in the next year and delivering even better results for their brand customers.”

The next frontier for TubeMogul and its ad agency partners will be focused on improving viewability rates for programmatic video ads that run on publisher websites and content destinations, Smith said.

“Viewability is the next big opportunity for brands as our research shows that if you increase the chances of your video ad actually getting viewed by consumers, the brands enjoy a sharp increase in brand consideration, recall, and purchase intent,” Smith said.

The report covers millions of mobile and standard pre-roll digital video ads available for buying across the web properties of major broadcasters, official music video streaming destinations, pay-TV networks, sports broadcasters, major news outlets and long tail video outlets that cater to niche interests.

TubeMogul’s programmatic video platform enables brands and agencies to buy video ad inventory in real-time across all devices, and provides ad serving, targeting, optimisation and brand measurement.

Download the report here.