New figures published yesterday by the IAB UK, tell us that the news for the digital media industry is certainly not mirroring the gloomy forecasts of the wider UK economy. Ad spend in the UK has risen by an astronomical £294m from £2.3bn to now £2.59bn, when compared to the first six months of 2011 according to the latest Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB) advertising expenditure report, conducted by PwC.

IAB Digital market graph 300x170 Digital Ad Spend up 12.6% at £2.59bn

Tim Elkington, IAB Director of Research and Strategy has put this down to online advertisers being more able to successfully deliver their campaigns efficient and effectively.   As an agency focused on utilising digital media to deliver to our clients KPI’s this is an observation we definitely agree with and feel very much apart of.

Some of the key statistics to come out of the report were:
- Paid-for search grew 15.9% year on year to £1,527m
- Classifieds grew 7.2% like-for-like to £427.1m
- Display advertising (including affiliates) grew 10.6% year on year to £590.9m
- Digital video advertising grew 43% to £69.8m
- Mobile now accounts for 7% of all digital ad spend

A figure of particular interest within the agency was the continued importance of search – which represented a 59% share of digital advertising.  It’s also no surprise that mobile was highlighted in the report as an area of considerable ad spend growth. Of the UK population smartphone ownership reportedly hit 58%* in June 2012, and consequently the survey found mobile ad spend rose by 132% to £181.5 million in the first half of 2012.

Tim Elkington, IAB Director of Research and Strategy summed up the importance of these statistics “Take mobile; 60% of the UK’s 100 biggest advertisers still don’t have a mobile-optimised website yet consumers spend almost 70% longer on sites which are. If all advertisers get wise to this, we’re likely to see significant mobile growth for some time yet.”

So, with such impressive year on year growth, and no signs of this slowing, a look into the crystal ball for the next 12 months and beyond in the digital media industry is certainly looking bright.

If you have any questions or comments, please get in touch via our Facebook, @7thingsmedia or email.

Thanks, 7thingsmedia

*Source: comScore, MobiLens, UK, 3 month average ending June 2012

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