A top Google executive has made the bold claim that 50% of advertising will be digital in the next five years as advertisers move more of their budgets towards online and mobile activity.by
Helen Leggatt A grandiose view of the future or a foregone conclusion? Whichever way you look at it, advertising budgets are moving online and have increasingly done so despite, or more likely because of, recent economic recession. Online's accountability and measurability make it an attractive arena for advertisers trying to wring every last dollar from their marketing coffers.
One of Google's top executives sees the move online continuing to reach new levels.
"People are shifting their spending dollars more and more to the online world - whether it be direct marketing, or advertising, or branding," Nikesh Arora, Google's president of global sales, told the U.K.'s Telegraph newspaper.
"I personally expect in the next five to eight years 30% to 50% of advertising will be digital".
While Arora admits it is a bold claim, he backs up his forecast by pointing out that in the U.S. 10% of advertising is already digital and in the U.K. it's double that. In fact, late last year the U.K.'s Internet Advertising Bureau announced that online ad spending had risen above television for the first time.
What will tip the balance? Video, says Arora. It's what consumers' eyeballs will be increasingly focused on and that's where advertisers will shift their ad dollars.
Mobile marketing is also set to take the marketing scene by storm and another sphere in which Google is looking to play a major role. Speaking at the 42nd IAA Global Conference in Moscow Arora commented, "I think mobile is a fantastic opportunity... The advent of the iPhone, the Android devices and the BlackBerry has finally given people reason in the western world [to] start using the mobile data."
Mitch Drew
National Sales Executive
NeuLionmitch.drew@neulion.com
