" ... Search, Banner, Video, 'MOBILE',.." - Er, Why ?

The latest IAB's US digital ad revenue report for 2016 has just been released. Although US-specific,it good bellwether stuff. Key takeouts (not many surprises albeit) :

1. Total digital ad = US$ 72.5 Bn., FY15 +22 %, 5Yr CAGR + 16 % p.a. 2. Growth driven by video FY + 53% overall + 146% on mobile, + 15% desktop, although overall share of total is low at 12% 3. Search @ 48% share, moving to Mobile (FY + 91% vs -13% on desktop) 4. Mobile now leads at 50.52 % of total, F15 + 77 %, 5yC + 87 % p.a. 5. Desktop fell FY -8 %, | 5yC +4 % p.a., video the only growth format 6. Top 10 players stable at 73% share (Ten year : low = 69%, high = 75%) 7. Sectoral contributions stable, Led by Retail (21%), Finance (13%), Auto (13%), Telecom (9%) and Travel (8%), No change in CPGs at 6% of total

You can read and download the report here.

Oh, and why do we overlap format and channel and say " Search, Display,Video, Mobile, Social,.." ? Context-specific is easy to understand - for e.g., to parse out Mobile-only buys, etc - and IMHO is how it should be too ; but as generic classification ? I haven't figured it out yet. Any thoughts ?

Thanks for reading. Cheers :)

Going mobile

Hi, VERY late in the day but - belated new year greetings ! Thanks for being here.

The months since the last post were spent on a whole lot of the usual seasonal things both personal and professional that one does this time of year . One highlight was a vacation back home in India where I encountered first hand the tremendous strides that mobile is making there cutting right across geography and demographics. When I asked the domestic help at my parents' home how he was spending new year's eve , he told me he was watching a movie. Gang outing ? Nope. On his phone. Nice ! 

A snapshot of  the growth in mobile users between 2006-2012 in the top five markets.

Country           2006 (Mn.)          2012 (Mn.)         CAGR (% p.a.)

China                    461                     1,112                        16 %

India                      166                        865                        32 %

USA                       230                        303                          5 % 

Indonesia                 64                        282                         28 %

Russia                    151                        262                        10 %

This is from an interesting Financial Times report on 4G development in China. 

(click for a larger view)