Internet will be biggest advertising medium in third of global ad market by 2017
A new advertising expenditure forecast from Zenith Optimedia has predicted that in 2017 the internet will become the biggest advertising medium in 12 key markets with mobile contributing 70 per cent of all global adspend.
The main factor of internet growth is mobile advertising which will have grown from 5.17 in 2014 to 12.9 per cent by 2017. Desktop internet’s share is expected to remain stable, growing slightly from 19.3 per cent in 2014 to 19.4 in 2017 while every other medium will lose share to mobile
Globally the internet will still remain in second place, behind television, however the gap between the market shares will shrink from 11 per cent to just 4 per cent. The internet is already the dominant medium in the UK, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden and 2017 will see China, Germany, New Zealand, Ireland and Finland join the fold.
Other key predictions contained within the report include a forecast that the UK’s ad market will grow by a further 5.4 per cent thanks to its rapid embrace of internet advertising and the economic recovery. The growth means the UK will overtake Germany to become the world’s fourth-largest advertising market behind the US, China and Japan.
Global adspend is expected to grow from 4.2 per cent to 5 per cent around the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio and the US presidential elections.
“The internet is quickly establishing itself as the dominant advertising medium, and on current trends will overtake television by the end of the decade,” said Steve King, ZenithOptimedia’s CEO, Worldwide.
“However, this refers only to traditional television viewed on TV sets," he continued. "The amount of time viewers spend watching online video on their laptops, tablets and smartphones is increasing rapidly, and advertisers are shifting their budgets online to follow them. The spread of internet devices and new advertising technology will give advertisers new opportunities to communicate with and learn from consumers, and to do so more effectively than ever before.”