Global spending on mobile advertising will increase 74% this year, to $913.5 million, and mobile ad spending is expected to surpass $13 billion by 2013, according to a new report from Gartner.
The report indicated that the Asia-Pacific region, North America and Europe will lead this growth, writes MediaBuyerPlanner (via MediaPost).
Location-based targeting, which has been touted as one of the capabilities which will drive the adoption of mobile advertising, will become a bigger reality as GPS technology gains wider availability. Location-based advertising will find an audience with young mobile users who are increasingly using mobile to navigate. But in order to fully take advantage of location-based advertising, media companies will have to develop local directory services like Yelp and Citysearch.
Third-party advertising in mobile apps will be another opportunity for mobile advertising, Gartner predicted.
A study from Parks Associates released in July said that mobile advertising revenues in the US and Canada will grow from $208 million in 2009 to $1.5 billion by 2013, despite possible early consumer resistance to mobile ads.
The Parks Associates report said that the adoption of smartphones, 3G network data plans (or newer wireless services), and downloadable applications will spur this growth in ad revenues, with significant increases beginning in 2010.
Gartner agreed that smartphone adoption will help speed mobile advertising growth. Smartphones will account for 45.5% of all mobile phone sales in 2013, up from just over 9% last year.
Flat-rate data plans will also help mobile advertising to proliferate, particularly beginning around 2011, as consumers undergo a fundamental shift in how they interact with their mobile devices.
A recent report from JiWire indicated that the use of mobile devices at public Wi-Fi hotspots in North America grew by 79% in the first half of 2009, while other research from MRI indicated that even though the majority of consumers currently find mobile ads bothersome, 20% of would like to view live TV on their cellphones. Both of these developments could bode well for the mobile advertising market.
