Report: Mobile Driving Digital Media

Mark Fratrik

In the spring update to its U.S. Local Media Forecast 2015, BIA/Kelsey forecasts location-targeted mobile advertising revenues in the U.S. to grow from $6.7 billion in 2015 to $18.2 billion in 2019, representing a 28.5 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

According to the forecast, mobile is driving most of the change in digital media, gaining traction with advertisers, and jumping to an 11.5 percent share of the total local media pie by 2019, up from a 4.8 percent share in 2015. This will make mobile the fourth largest local media in 2019, behind direct mail (23.6 percent share), over-the-air television (13.7 percent share) and pure-play online (12.9 percent share).

“Online spending is growing on ads viewed through desktops, but general online ad unit pricing faces headwinds as the attention of audiences and advertisers alike drifts more towards mobile,” said Mark Fratrik, SVP and chief economist, BIA/Kelsey. “Online will gain just a few points of local advertising market share, as mobile nearly triples its share.”

Michael Boland

Mobile’s impact on the local media marketplace will be a key theme at BIA/Kelsey’s upcoming BIA/Kelsey NOW conference (June 12, San Francisco), which will examine the emerging local on-demand economy (LODE).

“We live in an on-demand culture, conditioned by the mobile device to get whatever we want, whenever we want it,” said Michael Boland, chief analyst, VP, content, BIA/Kelsey, and co-chair for BIA/Kelsey NOW. “This is really reshaping the local service economy, with demand being captured and revealed for service providers in real time. At BIA/Kelsey NOW, we’ll examine how  this may impact the traditional local advertising model, in which advance marketing is required to connect buyers with sellers.”