Digital's role to skyrocket globally: Group M

According to the holding company's biannual report, This Year, Next Year, digital advertising will account for 17 per cent of global advertising spend in 2011, a full percentage point above the group’s forecast just six months ago. The conclusions were based on data supplied by parent company WPP's agency network.

As the sector grows at an estimated 15 to 16 per cent annually, the GroupM report estimated that digital advertising investment would top US$100 billion worldwide in 2012. Adam Smith, futures director for GroupM, suggested that the movement of advertising dollars to digital outlets largely reflected the commercial utility of behavioural targeting and web video. Even where digital advertising spending accounts for over 20 percent of measured advertising in the regions where it is most developed, there is still room for it to grow further, he said.

The report painted a bleaker picture on the more general advertising front, however. GroupM revised down its 2011 ad growth forecast a full percentage point from a 5.8 to a 4.8 per cent increase on 2010 numbers. It blamed unrest in the Middle East and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan for the downgrade.

But things could be looking up next year. The report predicts a 6.8 per cent increase in global ad spending in 2012, driven largely by big anticipated spends on the London Olympic Games and the US election season.