GroupM: 2013 digital spend to surpass $113 billion

Internet advertising hit $99 billion in 2012, representing a 16.2% increase over the previous year and accounting for 19.5% of all global measured advertising expenditures, according to a new report from GroupM. As the charts will show, globally, radio is holding its own and television is showing more of a decrease of late, albeit slow.

North America led the world in overall digital advertising investment with an estimated $38.3 billion; Asia-Pacific came in second with $30.6 billion followed by Western Europe with $24.1 billion, according to the study, “This Year, Next Year: Interaction 2013.”

The effort is part of GroupM’s media and marketing forecasting series drawn from data supplied by parent company WPP’s worldwide resources .  It was released by GroupM Futures Director Adam Smith and Global Chief Digital Officer Rob Norman.

The study also predicted that in 2013 digital ad spending will reach $113.5 billion globally, 14.6% more than 2012.  The figure represents more than 21% of all measured advertising investment.  In the 2013 forecast, North America once again ranks first with an estimated $42.8 billion in digital ad spend; Asia-Pacific follows with $36.8 billion, followed by Western Europe with $26.6 billion.

In the U.S., digital ad spend reached $35.4 billion in 2012, a 23% share of the overall domestic market and a 10% increase over the previous year, according to the study.  This year those figures are expected to reach $39.7 billion for a 25.4% share and a 12% increase over 2011.

“The internet no longer belongs to the old world and eastern Asia, nor does it depend upon evolution of infrastructure conceived a generation or more ago, but instead reaches every continent and economically active individual,” said Norman.

He adds, “Tablets created an entirely new and original mechanism of media consumption in less than three years. Tablets combine the display quality of HDTV, the interactivity of the PC and the location awareness, touch interface and app ecosystem of the mobile phone. Media is being re-imagined for the tablet and is increasingly seen as the future home of what we have always described as the print industry, the decline of which is precipitous with ever-fewer exceptions.”

Additional findings :

• The average percentage of consumers’ “media time” spent online has risen from 21 percent in 2007 to a predicted 30 percent in 2013.

• Investment in print media continues to lose share while digital media investment continues to gain.  Print accounts for 14 percent of the media day, but still attracts about 24% of investment, down from 48 percent when internet advertising investment measurement began in 1995. The decline of print advertising reflects falling circulations in the old world, but its share of the world’s media day has been surprisingly stable, and even increased in 2011, thanks to China.

E-commerce per user will stand at $859 in 2013, a 64 percent increase since 2007. International e-commerce total adds up to $917 billion for 2012 with a run-rate of growth of 18 percent to a predicted $1.1 billion in 2013. This volume of e-commerce generates an estimated 40 percent of online paid-media ad investment today.