Almost half of all ad spend now digital says report

A release from the IAB has reported digital advertising spend has continued its climb reflecting increasing consumer consumption of digital formats, reaching 48.6% of all advertising spend for calendar year 2016, up from 42.5% in 2015, according to the 2016 Report from CEASA (Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia).

The CEASA report is the only industry report to capture ad revenue from all major paid media channels, using authorised data sources from industry bodies including ThinkTV, Outdoor Media Association, IAB Australia and Commercial Radio Australia as well as data from all agency groups.

IAB reported in March online advertising expenditure has grown to $7.4 billion in calendar year 2016, a 23% gain on expenditure in CY15.

Gai Le Roy, research director at IAB Australia, commented: “As the stakes increase it is important that cool heads prevail and we rely on independent data from organisations such as the CEASA for media planning decisions rather than from incomplete sources. To understand the whole media market we must have data on direct advertiser spend and not just selected agency data. Without this we are missing almost all SME advertising spend as well as that of the larger advertisers that are taking more of their buying and planning in-house.”

Traditional FTA TV spend dropped from 24.0% to 21.6% of total ad spend in 2016 according to CEASA. However, ThinkTV has recently reported a shift to digital formats, noting that AVOD (video on demand) spend increased 48% year-on-year.

Mobile advertising, a subset of the digital advertising spend, increased to 15% of the whole paid media market in 2016 up from 11% in 2015 while digital video also continued to grow, representing 5% of the total ad spend in 2016 up from 3% in 2015.

Vijay Solanki, CEO of IAB, said: “The latest consumer data shows that over 20 million Aussies are online and 15 million are on their mobiles. As consumer penetration increases and immersion deepens, it’s inevitable that smart marketers would want to follow. All the data suggests that deepening consumer immersion into mobile and video will continue to drive revenue.”

For details about obtaining a copy of the CEASA Report – email: office@ceasa.com.au, tel: +61 2 9439 3750