In 2015, 36.5% of all European advertising revenue will be generated online, and in many Western European markets, online is already the largest advertising medium and still growing strongly, says Eleni Marouli, direct from Dmexco 2015*. However, online advertising faces many challenges, including ad blocking, viewability and ad fraud, as well as a lack of standardisation in online measurement. With the rise of video, online advertising is no longer just a performance-driven format. Brands want to be more involved in shaping their digital future. At Dmexco 2015 the return of the brand is everywhere.
European online video will grow 18.8% in 2015. As traditional TV experiences increasing dents in audience from strong OTT players like Netflix, many brands are slowly migrating their ad budgets to online video. However, as online video grows, technology giants Google and Facebook will be the main beneficiaries.
IHS predicts that by 2018, 57.2% of online video advertising revenue in the European Big Five (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK) will be generated by Facebook and YouTube. Traditional media owners are beginning to equip themselves with advertising technologies (eg RTL’s acquisition of SpotXchange, ProSieben’s acquisition of Virtual Minds).
Programmatic buying, or the automation of online advertising, are a key focus at Dmexco 2015. In 2015, IHS expects 47.0% of all European online display advertising to be traded programmatically, with that number reaching 72.8% by 2020. All media companies are now expected to provide advertising technology solutions and even traditional broadcasters, which have been the slowest to get onboard, are now speaking knowledgeably about programmatic. Consolidation in advertising technology is now in full swing — the most recent being Verizon’s AOL acquisition of mobile ad network Millennial Media — and we expect to see more of this throughout 2015.
*Eleni Marouli is senior analyst at IHS Technology