Zenith: Mobile Ups Share of Ad Market

Mobile is taking an increasing share of the global advertising market, Zenith reports, with it set to account for 30.5 percent of revenues in 2020.

Mobile advertising spend will reach $187 billion in 2020, just behind the $192 billion spent on TV advertising. “At the current rate of growth, mobile advertising will comfortably overtake television in 2021,” Zenith says.

However, Zenith notes that television remains a more effective medium. According to Zenith’s Touchpoints ROI Tracker, television ads are most effective at driving recall among potential customers, while mobile ads are least effective. Potential customers are 53 percent as likely to recall television ads as existing customers, but for mobile ads this falls to 41 percent.

Zenith’s Advertising Expenditure Forecasts expects global ad revenues to hit $580 billion this year, a 4.5 percent growth rate. Zenith expects next year’s growth rate to slip to 4.2 percent, rising up to 4.3 percent in 2020. The AsiaPac region is the biggest contributor to adspend growth, delivering 43 percent of all new ad dollars to the market from 2017 to 2020. Six of the ten markets that will contribute the most to global growth are in the Asia Pacific: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea. The region will account for 33.8 percent of global ad expenditure in 2020. North America is still the largest ad region but growth has slowed. North America’s share of the global ad market is expected to fall to 36 percent in 2020.

“Dynamic markets in Asia Pacific are leading the way in global adspend growth, growing at 5 percent to 6 percent a year,” said Jonathan Barnard, Zenith’s head of forecasting and director of global intelligence. “By the middle of the next decade it will be the biggest advertising region in the world.”

Barnard added, “The mobile device in our pockets is becoming the gateway to our media world, but its brand-building capabilities are still in question—simply applying old practices to new technology may not translate to brand growth,” said Vittorio Bonori, Zenith’s global brand president. “Having a clear understanding of how the entire ecosystem of paid, owned and earned media works together to drive return on investment is vital.”