Despite the rough economy, digital marketing is still going strong and is actually growing. According to eMarketer data released in August 2008, advertisers will spend $25 billion online in 2008 in the United States alone. This is about 17.5 percent more than 2007. eMarketer projects that the recession will cause growth to slow a bit in 2009, with projected spending at “only” $28.5 billion.
eMarketer is expecting the economy to recover by 2011 coupled with an increase in online video advertising to push the online ad spending to more than $40 billion that year. They then expect online advertising to grow by about $10 billion each year after that to 2013. eMarketer gets its projections by benchmarking against the Interactive Advertising Bureau numbers.
Digital marketing doesn’t only include online advertising – it includes everything from online video ads to search media to in-game and mobile advertising. A report from analyst firm Parks Associates also forecasts growth in digital media advertising segments. Parks Associates gives a breakdown of everything from Internet display, rich media, search, DVR, mobile and in-game advertising. New categories, such as in-game ads and mobile ads will have the highest gains because they’re starting from lower bases than other forms of digital advertising like online ads.
Parks Associates projects digital media to compose 10 percent of overall ad spending or about $24 billion by 2010. eMarketer predicts a higher number for 2010 of about $33 billion.
Of course, these are all just predictions, and each research firm has its own numbers that tell a different story.
JupiterResearch, for instance, forecasts display ad spending to reach $7.2 billion by 2010, while Parks Associates forecasts display ad spending to reach only $2.4 billion.
JupiterResearch believes by 2010 search marketing will reach $7.5 billion in revenues. Parks Associates sees search marketing growing more than that – up to $9.7 billion.
New categories like rich media, in-game and mobile advertising shows the most growth according to Parks Associates. Internet rich-media ads are projected to bring in an estimated $5.7 billion by 2010. In-game ads will grow at least 50 percent according to the study, bringing in about $430 million annually. Mobile advertising is expected to grow to $2 billion in the same time period.
Even though all the numbers are different, quite different, actually, they are all projecting an upward trend for digital marketing. The Parks Associates report says that media is moving from mass to niche, forcing advertisers to adapt to new content and ad formats. “We believe that advertising over the next five years will go through some changes,” said Parks Associates Research Analyst Harry Wang in a Webcast presentation of the report. “For content providers as well as media publishers, they have to provide content in a form that the audience prefers.”






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