Mobile advertising market will lead sector's growth

Global mobile advertisement spending is projected to double in 2011 to $3.3 billion (Dh12.1 billion) due to the increasing number of favourable factors in the technology market, according to a recent Gartner report. It could reach $20.6 billion in 2015. The report titled Forecast: Mobile Advertising, Worldwide, 2008-2015, predicts the mobile advertising market will record the highest growth in in-app display and mobile video advertising. "Mobile advertising is now recognised as an opportunity for brands, advertisers and publishers to engage consumers in a targeted and contextual manner, improving returns," said Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner. "For that reason, mobile advertising budgets are set to increase tremendously across the various categories and regions, growing from 0.5 per cent of the total advertising budget in 2010 to over 4 per cent in 2015." The growing market for mobile advertising is attributed to the presence of "different players" ranging from communication service providers to ad networks. While the growth is expected to continue in the short term, "this doesn't mean, by any stretch, that the experience delivered by mobile advertising will reach its optimum point in that timeframe," said Andrew Frank, vice-president for research at Gartner. "We expect that targeting and contextualisation, especially in social sites and applications, will carry on improving throughout the forecast." The Connecticut-based Gartner is among the leading global IT research and advisory firms. Established in 1979, it has clients in nearly 80 countries and 1,250 research analysts and consultants, according to its website. At the same time, the spread of the smart phones is another factor for the anticipated rise in revenues, seniors at Gartner were quoted as saying. "As the adoption of smart phones and media tablets extends to more consumers, the audience for mobile advertising will increase and become easier to segment and target, driving the growth of mobile advertising spend for brands and advertisers," said Frank. "Brand marketers who want to include mobile in their advertising initiatives should not delay their trials, and should have their budgets in place now to take advantage of mass consumer adoption of smart phones and media tablets." However, not all the types of mobile advertising have the same prospects, and not all the regions have equal prospects, added the report. For example, mobile search, which includes paid positioning on maps "will spearhead mobile ad spending," according to Gartner. The Asia-Pacific and Japan region will remain the leading market throughout the forecast period. It will account for 49.2 per cent of mobile advertising in 2011 and 33.6 per cent of the global markets in 2015. However, it is anticipated that North America and Western Europe will come at the top of the list of the promising regions, and will represent 28 and 25 per cent of the global spend by 2015. From / Gulf News