Advertising budgets for mobile channels are expected to buck the downward trend and hit by $5.7 billion by 2014, according to a new report from Juniper Research.
The report found that constraints on budgets, imposed in the wake of the global economic downturn, had resulted in an increasing migration of adspend from above the line to below the line channels: the need for engagement with the consumer, and a quantifiable ROI, meant that mobile was increasingly being perceived as a key medium through which to pursue this strategy.
However, Juniper stressed that, while this was encouraging, the level of growth had to be put into context – mobile advertising still remains a nascent medium, and even by 2014 it will only account for up to 1.5% of total global adspend.
Windsor Holden, report author, said: “These investments still form only a small proportion of a brand’s total advertising budget: Regardless of mobile’s advantages – its personal nature, the facility for highly targeted advertising – advertisers will not commit more budget until they perceive that the audience for their advertisements has reached a critical mass.”
Mobile adspend was up 99.2% year on year in 2008, hitting £28.6 million, according to a recent study by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers (see IAB: UK mobile adspend hits £28.6m in 2008).
Elsewhere, Magna’s US mobile advertising forecast predicted growth of 36% this year, rising from $169 million in 2008 to $229 million during the course of 2009 (see Ofcom Plans New Public Service Channel To Rival BBC).
