Forrester: Interactive ad spend to push $77B by 2016

Look for an explosion to hit interactive advertising by 2016. According to a new Forrester Research forecast, the mediums will reach $77 billion by 2016; that is the same amount that advertisers are currently spending on television ads. Just over one-third of the interactive spend will be within the Search, Display, Mobile, Email and Social categories.

by Kristina Knight

One interesting expectation from Forrester's forecast is that Search, which will continue to lead the interactive spend, is expected to lose share going from 55% of spending in 2011 to about 44% of the spend by 2016. Display advertising, meanwhile is expected to increase to nearly $28 billion over the next four years.

In the near-term, eMarketer suggests the global ad spend in 2011 may hit $500 billion, an increase of nearly 5% . Online ads are expected to reach $80 billion, a 17% increase. The online spend is pushing the overal ad spend, say eMarketer researchers.

"Online advertising has become a crucial element in ad budgets worldwide and will account for 16.1% of total media spending across the globe in 2011," writes eMarketer. "By 2015, online advertising will comprise nearly 22% of total media spending."

Back to Forrester's long-range predictions; their research suggests that the interactive marketplace may push daily deals out of the ad picture and instead help brands to re-focus on place, price, product and promotion. Shar Van Boskirk, author of the report, also believes marketers will also begin more investment into interactive channels, pushing more unique customer experiences through preferred devices - smartphones, tablets and other consumer electronics.

Tags: advertising forecast, eMarketer, Forrester Research, interactive advertising, online advertising

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Zhou Wenhan (@ybother)

Display advertising in general is catching on as rich media capabilities are providing great branding opportunities. Advertisers have finally recognized that interactive can be a good branding channel.
Online advertising in general is going to see a shift in attention to making the banners and landing sites more interactive and entertaining. This is something that iAd has and is trying to achieve.
As of now, online ads don't entertain thus they are unsuitable for branding advertising which is at least half of the ad spend.
Mobile will probably take off faster in branding ads compared to online because the mobile devices are so much more personal and users feel more engaged with the ads that they see.
HTML5 standards will increase the creative capabilities of mobile advertising rapidly and will probably increase the eCPM the industry recieves in the next 12 months.

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