Mobile Ads on Pace to Overtake Radio in 2014

If broadcasters had any doubt that embracing mobile is a wise move, a new forecast makes a numeric case for doing so. Fast-growing mobile advertising is, for the first time, set to take a larger share of ad dollars than radio this year analysts predict, according to today’s Inside Radio article.

 

Mobile ad spending will capture 9.8% of total media dollars, more than the 8.6% eMarketer predicts will be allocated to broadcast radio. It’s a reversal from last year, when radio’s 8.9% share was bigger than mobile’s 5.7%. Driven by the largest increase of any media segment, eMarketer forecasts marketers will also spend more on mobile than on magazines, print, and out-of-home media. Only television and desktop internet will have a larger slice of the advertising pie.

“There is a huge demand among radio advertisers to be in mobile,” Emmis Digital president Angie May Cook said in a recent interview. “They’re starting to understand that there’s real value in this, that’s it’s more than just an add-on to a radio buy.”

 

Helping that effort, a recent Nielsen-Digiday survey of advertisers and agencies found nearly a third of brands (31%) prefer to run mobile ads alongside radio. The eMarketer forecast estimates $17.73 billion will be spent on mobile advertising this year, an 83% increase compared to a year ago. By 2018, estimates are it will top $58 billion. Meanwhile, analysts project all traditional media — including radio, TV, outdoor and print — will see continued share erosion over the next several years as marketers shift more dollars into emerging digital options.

 

By 2018, eMarketer predicts digital will surpass even television, capturing nearly four of every ten dollars spent by advertisers. The firm says consumers spending more time with mobile devices is driving the shift.

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