IAB Australia has been tracking digital advertising expenditure since 2003 when the total market was only $236 million and I am personally old enough to remember getting excited when online advertising tripled in 1998 to $8 million. We released the latest Australia digital advertising revenue information in the IAB/PWC Online Advertising Expenditure Report a couple of weeks ago and the market neared $4.4 billion for FY14.
Last week CEASA released official figures for the whole paid-media market in Australia for the first half of 2014. This new data shows that the ad market is currently roughly distributed into thirds – one-third digital, one-third TV (free-to-air and subscription) and the remaining third represents all other channels.
According to the new CEASA report, digital represented 34 percent of the ad market for financial year 13/14 up from 30 percent for calendar year 2013.
If we just look at the first half of the 2014 calendar year, digital had an incredible 37 percent share of the ad market. Combined digital and TV (FTA and pay) accounted for 67.5 percent of the revenues for the six months from January to June 2014.
As we have discussed on this blog a number of times, much of the current growth in digital revenue is coming from the mobile and video components of the market.
To put these segments of the digital sector into perspective:
• Mobile advertising represented 6 percent of the total ad market for the first half of 2014 and is significantly larger than both the magazine (including consumer, business and rural) and outdoor sectors.
• Video advertising represented 2 percent of the total ad market for 1H 2014 and more than double the total cinema ad market. With current growth projections, digital ad video dollars should be approximately half the pay TV ad market for this calendar year.
As the market changes and agencies and marketers continue to tweak their budgets to get the best return on their investment and follow people’s media consumption habits, I wouldn’t be surprised to see digital representing 4 out of every $10 spent in the market for the whole calendar year.
IAB members can access the complete report Online Advertising Expenditure report here. More slides on the digital market can be found in our new nickable charts area.
