Global digital advertising to hit 20% of Ad budgets

GroupM, the New York-based world’s largest advertising media company, has predicted that global ad spending in digital media, which is expected to reach $95 billion this year, will increase 14 percent next year and comprise 20 percent share of ad budgets.

In Nigeria, it is not yet calculated how much is spent on digital advertising, but the above-the-line advertising accounts for about N120 billion annually.

Experts have expressed confidence that the rise in digital advertising will not affect ad spend on other traditional media platforms. “I don’t think the rise in digital ad spend will affect other traditional platforms, at least not for now. What it will enforce us to do is to make our TV ad campaigns work harder. It would force us to take a second look at the way we would develop campaigns for conventional media and look at the positives of digital advertising that we can bring into conventional media,” Ikechi Odigbo, CEO, DDB Lagos, said in a report.

It is expected that digital advertising will increase, especially as advertisers search for new ways to connect with consumers and on account of the increase in internet convergence. Nigeria internet users figure has grown in recent times, hitting over 45 million above many other countries in the continent.

GroupM has also revised its predictions for ad spending globally for 2013. The company expects ad spending in measured media across 75 countries to grow 3.4 percent to $507 billion in 2013. It had predicted growth of 4.5 percent in a forecast in December, according to Adage report. The report said the new figure would represent a slight slowdown from last year, when global ad spending in measured media grew 3.6 percent to $490 billion, according to GroupM.

The downward revision is mostly due to continued economic troubles in the Eurozone, specifically Italy, Spain, Greece and Ireland. “Stabilisation is elusive,” GroupM futures director Adam Smith said in a statement. “We now expect this group to record an 11 percent fall in measured advertising in 2013.”

In the US, ad dollars flowing to measured media will grow just 1.8 percent this year to a total of $156 billion, according to the new report. GroupM previously said it expected measured ad spending in the US to increase 2.7 percent.

By: Daniel Obi with Agency report