Mobile ad spend to account for one third of growth as ZenithOptimedia forecasts positive outlook
Mobile advertising is predicted to account for one-third of advertising spend growth this year as, despite a lack of Olympics or US election advertising spend, the rate of advertising growth has continued throughout 2013 at the same rate as that of last year, according to the ZenithOptimedia Advertising Expenditure Forecast.
The latest forecast has predicted that the advertising market is on track to grow by 3.5 per cent this year, with stronger rates of 5.1 per cent and 5.9 per cent predicted for 2014 and 2015 respectively.
The reason for this cited is the health of the European economy, which emerged from an 18-month recession during the second quarter of this year and positively impacted upon the European advertising market.
Despite this, the forecast in growth of advertising spend within the Eurozone has been adversley affected by the first half of the year, and has been reduced to an expected growth rate of 1.4 per cent, rather than the predicted 1.9 per cent.
The forecast for Rising Marketplaces such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, however has been increased to 7.6 per cent, up from the initial 7 per cent, as a result of their improving technology, education and infrastructures.
The forecast also states that mobile advertising on smartphones and tablets will account for 37 per cent of global advertising expenditure growth this year, and 31 per cent next year, worth US$14.3bn worldwide in 2013, making up 2.8 per cent of total advertising spend.
Growth in mobile advertising is forecast to grow by 77 per cent this year, 56 per cent next year and 48 per cent in 2015, when it is predicted to account for 6 per cent of worldwide expenditure.
Despite the growth in mobile, desktop Internet also continues to grow, with an 8 per cent growth expected this year and next, and a 7 per cent increase in 2015, accounting for over a fifth (20.4 per cent) of worldwide spend this year.
Steve King, CEO of ZenithOptimedia, explained that the stability of global advertising spend this year, despite a lack of major events, proved that there was a recovery that would strengthen over the following two years.
The report also predicted a pay-TV battle between Sky and BT, together with the onset of 4G, offsetting continued declines in print.
This represents a 2.9 per cent increase on the year before, a significant upgrade from forecasts penned as recently as June – which predicted a mostly flat market.
A rosier outlook has come about thanks chiefly to an ongoing marketing war between BT and BSkyB whilst Vodafone and EE remain at loggerheads in the 4G market.
It is a different story in the print world however with newspaper advertising downgraded from a 4.3 per cent year on year decline, to 4.7 per cent. Regional titles fared even worse, dipping further from a 7.8 per cent decline to 8.2 per cent.
Magazines fared worst of however as their advertising market slipped slipped from a projected 8.1 per cent fall to an even more precipitous 9 per cent.