Global spending on digital advertising is set to grow 13 per cent to $117.60 billion in 2013 as against 2012, while mobile spending will reach $15.82bn in 2013 representing a whopping 79.7% year-over-year increase, says a recent Global Media Intelligence Report by eMarketer – produced in collaboration with Starcom MediaVest Group. Overall ad spending will rise 2.8% to more than half a trillion dollars in 2013, driven by continued adoption of digital devices and internet connectivity, it said. However,the global economy is in recovery mode, and while total media ad spending will be up in 2013, the rate of increase will not be particularly strong. eMarketer estimates ad expenditures will rise 2.8% worldwide to $517.10 billion, compared to last year’s 4.4% spending increase. Much of the spending growth stems from broader digital adoption on the part of consumers. The full report, which covers six major regions—including Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, North America, and Latin America—and 40 countries, paints a picture of continued device adoption globally. In the Middle East and Africa region, mobile phone usage is skyrocketing and the region is expected to account for the second-largest mobile phone population of any region in the world, said the eMarketer’s GMI report. Asia-Pacific has the largest mobile phone population in the entire world, at more than 2.43 billion; no surprise considering China and India alone each boast more than one billion residents, making the region the most populous in the world overall. But the No.2 region in terms of the number of mobile phone owners is the Middle East and Africa, where 525.8 million people of any age are expected to use a mobile phone at least monthly this year – significantly more than in North America or Western Europe. Smartphone use in the MEA region will nearly double in 2013 to 112.2 million, up from 67 million last year, while penetration of smartphones among all mobile phone users in the region will increase from 5.1% to 8.3% of the population this year, according to the report. Despite the rapid rise in smartphone penetration, the MEA region remains last in the world by this metric, which helps explain why mobile internet ad spending in the region is still the lowest in the world, at an anticipated $50.4 million this year. That represents 140% growth compared to 2012 spending levels, but is far behind regional totals elsewhere in the world, even for other emerging markets like Latin America ($150m) or Central and Eastern Europe ($162m), which have smaller mobile populations but larger populations of smartphone users and users of the mobile internet. Executive vice-president of global research for Starcom MediaVest Group, Kate Sirkin, says: “The 2013 Global Media Intelligence Report forecasts increasing worldwide adoption of mobile technology. As smartphones and tablets become ubiquitous, advertisers will be able to capitalize on this unprecedented opportunity to develop more meaningful experiences with consumers leveraging mobility and place, and they will increase worldwide mobile ad spending to an estimated $59.7 billion by 2017; a nearly fourfold increase compared with this year.”
