INSIGHTanalysis: Media Healthcheck – May 2006
May began with a positive diagnosis for the UK advertising industry, with expenditure forecast to rise this year by 2.6%, ahead of the 2.2% predicted for the US and 1.4% for the Eurozone. The figures from the Advertising Association and World Advertising Research Centre also showed that advertising expenditure in the UK grew by 1.8% year on year in 2005 (see UK Adspend Forecast To Rise By 2.6% In 2006).
In addition, the internet should overtake national newspapers to become the third biggest advertising medium by spend, according to research carried out by GroupM, who forecast a 39% rise in UK internet advertising to the end of 2007 (see Internet Advertising To Overtake National Press).
KPMG and Thomson Intermedia’s first quarter 2006 report showed total UK advertising spend was up 3.4%, with overall growth of the advertising industry entirely sustained by direct and digital media (see Digital And Direct Media Drive Ad Spend Up).
Of course advertising needs people to be able to access it, and the internet’s value as an advertising platform was reflected in eMarketer’s report Worldwide Online Access, which said that over one billion people have internet access, while 845 million of those are regular users who go online at least once a month (see Global Growth For Internet).
However, according to a report by Nielsen//NetRatings, global internet user numbers decreased over April, dropping by about 0.5% over the month compared with a 2.2% increase in March, with Germany recording the biggest drop of 2.5% and Switzerland enjoying an increase of 2.6% (see Internet User Numbers Decrease in April).
Older internet users are not being left out of the online revolution though, as “silver surfers”, people aged 55 or over, were shown to have made up 15.7% of visits to all categories of website. The analysis from Hitwise UK said that this age group was attracted most to Google, followed by MSN Hotmail and then eBay UK (see Favourite Websites Of The Silver Surfers).
At the younger end of the spectrum, comScore Networks released a study predicting in-game advertising could be worth up to £2 billion by 2010, with the majority of gamers, who are mostly aged 18-44, playing for more than 16 hours a week on any one platform (see In-Game Ads Look Appetising For Advertisers). In addition, research conducted by Enpocket demonstrated that the majority of 18-34 year olds now engage with brands through their mobile phones (see Young Mobile Users Eager To Engage With Brands).
Meanwhile, Vodafone reported that take-up of its mobile TV service launched last year with BSkyB was overwhelming, with over 100,000 subscribers and more than 70,000 streams per day (see TV To Go).
While much research is conducted looking at age profiles or social demographics, BBC Magazines published a study in which it claimed to find a new demographic currently overlooked by media analysis. It dubbed the 20 million strong mass of consumers Big Britain, and said that this group was joined by a set of common values which underpinned its £238 billion spending power (see BBC Research Finds ‘Hidden’ Demographic).