British consumers average 43 hours a month online – a startling one in every 12 waking minutes – and advertisers spent a record six-month figure of £3.04 billion to attract their attention, according to the latest IAB Digital Adspend report.
The report, conducted by PwC with consumer data from UKOM/comScore, revealed that advertising on the internet and mobile phones increased like-for-like by 17.5%, up £435 million compared with the same period for 2012.
With over 46.1 million people active online the total spend equated to approximately £66 per head of the online population over the six month period.
Fuelled by smartphone ownership reaching 68% of the UK population in June 2013, mobile advertising – which now accounts for 14% of all digital ad spend – grew like-for-like by 127% to £429.2 million in the first half of the year – almost double that for the same period in 2012.
As 4G networks begin to roll out across the nation, video advertising grew a huge 1,260% to £23 million, which Tim Elkington, director of research and strategy at the IAB, says demonstrates the internet is quickly becoming an entertainment platform.
“With smartphone penetration crossing the two-thirds landmark and the successful roll out of 4G, 2013 could be the year when advertising spend on mobile crosses the £1 billion threshold,” Elkington said.
Total mobile display advertising (including video) increased like-for-like by 195% to £150.5 million in the first half of 2013 and for the first time, consumer goods became the biggest spender on mobile display, almost doubling its share in a year to 26.8%.
As a result, the consumer goods sector overtook entertainment/media as biggest mobile display advertiser, and finance as the biggest spender on digital display advertising.
In terms of advertising formats, display advertising across the internet and mobile grew at 23% – above the 17.5% digital rate average.
Video advertising grew 86% year on year to over £135 million, while social media advertising grow 53% to £243 million – a threefold increase over the last three years.
The report estimated that tablet ad spend for the first half of 2013 was at least £10.5 million, up from approximately £2.4 million in the first half of 2012.
