The UK mobile advertising market looks set to finally come of age, with total revenues growing from £27.47 million this year, to £258.27 million by 2015, according to the latest data released by mobileSQUARED. The UK remains the largest mobile advertising market in Europe.
Mobile advertising is crucial to retailers as it often provides consumers with the vital link to using mobile retail sites and apps, and can also be used by retailers to build and nurture on going relationships with customers, helping loyalty and up and cross sell.
In 2010, the mobile banner ad market will be worth £12.96 million, with search worth £9.86 million. Search will account for 36% of mobile advertising spend in 2010, rising to 45% in 2015. In 2012, mobile search will overtake mobile banner spend and become the largest contributor of the UK mobile advertising market.
“We’ve been forecasting ‘explosive growth’ since 2006 for the mobile advertising industry on the back of the hype surrounding the potential of the medium, only to revise our numbers downwards because the revenues failed to materialise,” said Nick Lane, chief strategy analyst at mobileSQUARED. “As the hype is now replaced by reality, the UK mobile advertising market finally has a firm footing on which to develop and evolve.”
The mobile channel as a means to communicate with the UK consumer is maturing, with the mobileSQUARED Knowledge Centre forecasting smartphone penetration of 23.9% in 2010, with mobile internet penetration of 24.6%. mobileSQUARED also forecasts the mobile messaging ad market will be worth £2.93 million this year, and will experience growth of almost 2,000% during the forecast period, to £60.99 million.
“Mobile advertising is gradually evolving beyond traditional online display model,” continues Lane. “The emergence of opt-in messaging ad revenues by 2015 is a reflection of the fact that the average mobile user has their device with them 16 hours per day and 95% of SMSes are read within 3 minutes of being sent. Brands and businesses are waking up to this highly responsive channel.”
