Mobile phone adspend up 32% in 2009

Mobile phone adspend was up 32% year on year in 2009 to a new high of £37.6 million, according to the a new IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers study.

Every quarter in 2009 showed consistent, strong growth, the report found, with Q4 delivering a record display advertising spend of £5.5 million, up 28% period on period.

Mobile search was the fastest growing format – up 41% to a new high of £20.2 million and a market share of 54% (50% in 2008), while mobile display – which includes banners, text links, tenancies pre- and post-roll and in-game advertising – grew by 24% to £17.4 million and grabbed a market share of 46% (50% in 2008).

The 2009 report also reveals the top display ad categories for the first time, with Entertainment & Media on top with 61.5%, followed by Telecoms (14.7%), Finance (8.1%), Consumer Goods (3.2%), and Government, social and political (2.7%).

Jon Mew, head of mobile at the IAB, said: “While market conditions saw many advertisers reduce their investment and testing on mobile, these findings paint a positive picture of a compelling new advertising medium.

“Mobile is an effective, highly targeted and complementary advertising channel. Signs are that 2010 will be important year as confidence and budgets increase.”

Many new advertising opportunities have been created by the rise of smartphones, and recent figures from comScore show that the UK smartphone market has grown 70% over the past year to more than 11 million subscribers, while Deloitte claims that approximately one in five UK consumers now owns a smartphone.