«Revenues generated by the digital advertising business are becoming increasingly relevant in the overall advertising market» claimed Andrea Lamperti, GM of the Osservatorio Internet Media of the Politecnico di Milano, during the latest IAB Forum 2018. His claim is based on concrete data: year over year, revenues from the digital Adv, exceeded only by the ones generated by TV, have been consistently increasing and have almost reached a total worth of 3 billion Euros. More specifically, digital ADV is currently worth 2,97 billion Euros (+11% against 2017), and accounts for one third of Italian investments. Tv and web together, then, account for 77% of the overall advertising revenues. Radio is growing, too (+4,2%), while the press keeps loosing ground (-8,3%).
The display format wins over its competitors
The display format, i.e. traditional banners, videos, social network ads and new native formats altogether, is currently the most popular among all other tools, and is worth 62% of the market, although data shown by Lamperti prove that videos are leading the way with a stunning +24%.
On the other hand, the search format accounts for 28% of all investments in internet advertising, followed by classified ads (+7%) and the email format which has registered an increase of +3% (Digital Advertising: investiments amount in almost 3 billion Euros).
Programmatic Adv importance
However, in such a positive scenario what emerges as a negative data is the growth of Over-the-tops (OTT) within a market ruled by two actors only, Google and Facebook. Experts dislike such duopoly, as claimed in my post entitled “Facebook and Google, a duopoly which worries advertisers” on the basis of data published in the The State of Digital Advertising 2018 report. During the IAB Forum such trend was actually confirmed: OTTs control 75% of the whole sector and the abovementioned high tech-giants are the absolute rulers, despite local competitors.
<< OTTs consistent growth is due to several intrinsic features >>, explained Lamperti. <<First, the ability to identify the potential of the data they own, second, the strategic vision which has led them to spot, before all others, the opportunity to create some ecosystems of complementary platforms which can attract huge audiences through different touchpoints/services provided to users>>.
Therefore, anyway, the increasing success of programmatic ADV, when analyzed from advertisers’ point of view, shall push OTTs to be clearer, both with regard to the monitoring and the validation process of advertising investments into their platforms. Investors who are putting their money into digital ADV have been asking for a simple and fair thing: the whole supply chain shall work properly. Without forgetting about the rights of digital advertising end users.
Adv towards 2019: the main trends to be monitored
The 2018 scenario is bound to extend into 2019. Therefore, over the next few months we can expect the implementation of shared metrics and indicators aimed at assessing the performances of digital advertising campaigns, as well as the use of the blockchain to become the main solutions to the current need for more transparency.
Next year also Amazon evolution will have to be carefully monitored. If, on the one hand, Google and Facebook ( still ) represent a consolidated duopoly, on the other hand Bezos’ platform is taking over some specific sectors of adv, such as paid searches (Who is afraid of Amazon: the e-com titan is aiming at paid searches).
Last but not least, brands and advertisers had better keep an eye on the Addressable Tv and Digital audio new formats, i.e. those tools which are directly connected with the spreading of smart TVs and smart speakers which are soon to become the next big thing.
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To find out more about the digital world, you may read my latest book entitled: “People Are Media”
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