mobile marketing accounted for 99 per cent of the growth in internet advertising last year

Mobile ad spend reached £3.9bn in 2016, accounting for 99 per cent of the growth in internet advertising – which grew 13.4 per cent to £10.3bn.

According to the Advertising Association/Warc Expenditure Report, 86 per cent of mobile advertising’s current value has been generated in just the past five years – which has also aided digital advertising’s overall growth.

Digital accounted for 38 per cent of the £1.1bn in the out of home advertising market in 2016, double the share recorded in 2012. Meanwhile, online ad revenues for national news brands grew for the fifth year running – seeing an increase of 4.9 per cent to £230m.

“The UK's ad industry is experiencing the most seismic shift since Warc began monitoring in 1982,” said James McDonald, senior data analyst at Warc. “Last year exemplified this, as over 95 per cent of the new money entering the market came from digital formats. The trend will continue as ad tech improves and consumers spend more time with their internet-connected devices.”

Elsewhere TV ad spend hit £5.3bn in 2016, with a boost from the 12.6 per cent growth of video-on-demand revenue. Ad spend was also up in cinema – up eight per cent to £257m – and radio – up 5.4 per cent to £646m.

Overall, UK ad expenditure grew by 3.7 per cent to reach £21.4bn in 2016 – its seventh consecutive year of growth. It is forecasted to grow by 2.5 per cent in 2017 and 3.3 per cent in 2018.

“Advertising has proved resilient to uncertainty and behind these numbers is a cutting edge, digital business in which Britain is a world-beater,” said Stephen Woodford, chief executive at the Advertising Association. “As we work towards Brexit, we're urging Government to support UK advertising and do more to unlock its potential to grow UK plc.”

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