This year, the UK will become the first country in the world where 50% of all advertising expenditure goes on digital media, according to new research.
The data, from eMarketer indicates that £8.1 billion will be spent across digital platforms, accounting for 50 per cent of 2015’s £16.2 billion total predicted ad spend.
The UK is closely followed by Norway and China, but is expected to remain the world leader in digital ad expenditure until 2018, when China takes top spot.
The increase is predominantly being driven by the growth of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, with digital ad spend on mobile devices set to rise 45 per cent in 2015 to reach £3.3 billion.
Bill Fisher, analyst at eMarketer, believes pushing through the 50 per cent mark is a watershed moment for advertising in the UK.
“Digital reaching the 50 per cent threshold in the UK is a significant moment for the ad industry, and digital’s dominance is particularly interesting when compared with the global splits, as well as the splits in some other notable regions,” he said. “Digital accounts for a 29.6 per cent share globally and just over 31 per cent in the US, for example. The UK ad market is notable for its aggressive embrace of online advertising and its rapid adoption of mobile advertising. Because so much TV and radio programming appears ad-free in the UK, the comparative spending on digital channels has always been high. This year, though, we’re set to see digital reach an inflection point.”
The rest of eMarketer’s 2015 UK report shows that TV ad spending will rise 3.2% this year to £4bn.
This means that this year will also see digital advertising become worth more than double TV advertising in the UK for the first time.
The UK newspaper print advertising market will fall 4% to £1.9bn.
Digital ad spend percentage share of total advertising spend, by country, 2015.
1. UK 50%
2. Norway 45%
3. China 43.6%
4. Australia 43.3%
5. Denmark 43.1%
6. Netherlands 35.4%
7. Canada 34.3%
8. US 31.3%
9. Sweden 30.5%
10. South Korea 28.4%