3socialMAccording to Zenith's recently published Advertising Expenditure Forecast, social media ad spend is the fastest growing segment of online advertising with a growth rate of 51% last year. The forecast estimates that spending on social media will reach $55 billion and that print media will be significantly behind with $50 billion. By 2019, Zenith’s experts predict growth rates of 20% per year, primarily focusing on moving image offer - first and foremost Facebook and Youtube. Therefore, advertisers should keep in mind fast growing social media platforms, such as Snapchat, too.

Internet tops television in advertising expenditure

Furthermore, according to the report, Internet advertising spending will increase by 13% and reach around $205 billion in 2017, accounting then for 36.9% of total advertising spend. This would then be the first time when more money flows into the Internet than in the traditional advertising channel TV (which is $192 billion). However, the sheer scale of internet advertising means its growth rate is slowing: In 2015 growth was still 20%, went down in 2016 to 17%, and is now expected falling down to10% till 2019.

Social, mobile and video remain important drivers

Since the beginning of 2010, the global advertising market has grown by 4-5% and this trend is likely to continue until 2019.

“Internet advertising has contributed all of the growth in global ad spend since the beginning of the decade, and has stimulated much of the innovation we’ve seen in the market,” said Vittorio Bonori, Zenith’s Global Brand President.

“Innovation is proceeding as fast as ever, and we believe that this is what will continue to drive brand growth for advertisers.”

For more information, please download the executive summary here.

By MediaBUZZ