After shrinking steadily for a few years, on line advertising is finally rocketing: according to the latest report issued by the Osservatorio Internet Media of the Politecnico of Milan and IAB Italia, in 2016 internet advertising generated 2,4 billion Euros (+9%), i.e. 30% of the global advertising market. In 2017 the forecast talks about 2,6 billion Euros. As explained in my post entitled “Several new researches and forecast have confirmed it: online ADVs are mainly video based” mobile and native videos will be driving the market.
While last year, online adv was the second advertising instrument in Italy, with a market share of  30%, just a little less than Tv which still holds the 50%, videos have gathered over 500 million Euros, recording an outstanding +41% compared to 2015. And they are expected to grow by 35% in 2017. Read it in Italian.

It is worth pointing out that the survey shows how most Millennials prefer to search for special contents regardless the medium used (see “Generational differences that digital marketers must understand”), whereas people over 55 are still keen on watching TV.

Analyzing the issue deeper, display advertising in 2016 grew by 11%, thus being the dominant element in the market (58%) and getting closer to 1,4 billion Euros. The search, i.e. the fact of gaining visibility across search browsers, accounts for about 730 million Euros (+4%).
The classified format, instead, is worth about  200 million Euros. In this case, it is obvious that the growth of the new vertical portals (worth 30 million Euros) has compensated the decrease in email advertising.

However, the field which has literally bloomed is the so called native advertising, comprising all texts, graphs and videos inside widgets, news or website pages which has grown by +76% gaining over 30 million Euros especially thanks to its ability to operate ad blockers, to its lower aggressiveness and higher consumers engagement.

It is now quite easy to identify the tools used to collect ads: 65% of them are collected through PCs, even though such percentage is bound to decrease for obvious reasons; 30% of them are gathered through smartphones (706 million Euros and +54% compared to 2015) and 5% through tablets. In this case, figures have increased by 36%.

With reference to programmatic advertising, in Italy, it is worth 315 million Euros, and has recorded an increase of 35% compared to 2015. Its incidence on display advertising has moved from 19% to 23%, whereas its incidence on the overall internet advertising has moved from 11% to 13%. Even in this case – and, again, it is no surprise at all! – videos are leading the way, accounting for 30% of the market.

Analysts have forecast a further increase of 25%, this year, and a total worth of 400 million Euros, with an incidence on display advertising of 25% and on internet advertising of over 15%. Considering the relevance of such data, marketers should take them into serious consideration if they do not want to miss their targets.

Which factors do you take into consideration when planning your advertising campaigns?  Tweet your comments @agostinellialdo.
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