Zenith ups ad spend forecast for 2010 to 4.8%

Zenith Optimedia has raised its forecast for global ad spend to increase this year by 4.8%, up from its earlier 3.5% prediction, and predicts further growth for 2011.

Digital ad spend will total $61.5bn (£38.8bn) this year as total ad spend reaches $442.9bn (£279.2bn), and will continue to grow as a percentage of total ad spend, according to the report.

The Publicis Groupe-owned agency claimed digital will account for 16.5% of all ad revenues in 2012, up from 12.8% in 2009.

Paid search is driving online ad revenues and will account for 51.4% of them (£50.6bn) in 2012.

Display advertising dipped slightly between 2008 and 2009 but is expected to make a recovery before 2012, when it will account for 33% of all online spend.

Mobile social networking will become more important to advertisers as user take-up of services such as Facebook Places increases.

“New formats, especially video, mobile and social media, should help mobile’s share of internet spend return to 33% by 2012,” said the report.

“Between 2009 and 2012 we forecast mobile advertising to grow by an average of 44.3% a year, while social media advertising grows by 31.2% a year, compared to 14.6% a year for the internet as a whole,” it continued.

The announcement is Zenith Optimedia’s fourth consecutive quarterly upgrade in global ad spend, although its prediction for 2011 – 4.6% annual growth – represents a minor slowdown in total ad spend.

This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk

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