Australia catching up to US and UK in mobile advertising investment
Mobile advertising in Australia has been described as a two speed digital economy, with research released today by TNS and IAB Australia showing that marketers and publishers who are not investing in mobile advertising risk being left behind. The 2nd Annual IAB / TNS Mobile Landscape Study found that more experienced marketers are using more sophisticated metrics and are more open to increasing their budgets with the expectation that two thirds of display campaigns will have a mobile component by 2016.
The findings were drawn from in depth surveys with more than 100 marketing and media professionals involved in the digital industry, with a 50:50 balance between buyers and sellers.
Respondents from both publishers and agencies nominated location targeting, video and cross screen targeting as the key development areas for mobile advertising this year, while also noting that the number one barrier to further investment in mobile advertising is measurement weaknesses. Seventy five percent of agencies and advertisers also noted that publishers who lack a strong mobile presence or offering risk becoming less relevant to advertisers.
The research follows the recent PwC Online Advertising Expenditure Report which reported that mobile advertising represented 14 percent of digital spend in Q4 2013. Alice Manners, CEO of IAB Australia, expects that expenditure for mobile advertising will increase to 20 percent in 2014, and account for 25 percent of the digital display market.
Gai Le Roy, Director of Research at IAB Australia commented: “It is noteworthy that we’ve closed the gap in terms of advertisers’ understanding the importance of mobile, and the challenge before us now is to address measurement, which is something the IAB is deeply invested in.”
Key findings in the study include:
- Lack of advertisers’ understanding around mobile advertising decreased from 23 percent to 14 percent; while lack of measurement and tracking metrics has increased from 17 percent to 25 percent to be the single biggest issue facing mobile advertising.
- Nearly half of all campaigns have mobile components and this is expected to increase by 43 percent by 2016.
- The role of video in mobile ad content will grow 85 percent by 2016.
- Marketers described being more comfortable with the mobile web rather than apps, despite the fact that apps now consume up to 89 percent of consumer mobile use time in the USA.
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About the Interactive Advertising Bureau
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Limited is the peak trade association for online advertising in Australia and was incorporated in July 2010. As one of over 40 IAB offices globally, and with a rapidly growing membership, IAB Australia’s principal objective is to support and enable the media and marketing industry to ensure that they thrive in the digital economy.
IAB Australia’s board includes representatives of Carsales.com, Fairfax Media, Google, Mi9, Network Ten, News Australia, REA Group, Telstra Media Group, TressCox Lawyers and Yahoo!7. It has four objectives:
- To be the ‘big tent’ for the entire digital advertising industry and define the future of digital advertising
- To deliver the benefits of ad funded interactive experiences to Australians
- To develop, coordinate and promote industry standards and guidelines that make interactive advertising a simpler and more attractive medium for agencies, advertisers and marketers
- To prove and promote the effectiveness of interactive advertising to advertisers, agencies, marketers and the press
For further information about IAB Australia please visit: www.iabaustralia.com.au