How UK advertising is changing

The UK market is the first in the world where £1 in every £2 of advertising spend goes to digital (online, tablet, and--significantly--mobile). In part, this is due to the unique ad-free nature of so much of the UK broadcast media (think BBC).

The full chart, from eMarketer, shows that below the 50% mark for the UK, digital in Norway is 45% of total ad spend, followed by China, with nearly 44% of total ad spend. For comparison, digital is only 31% of ad spend in the US--and a mere 28% in South Korea.

Worldwide, mobile advertising is expected to reach £100 billion by the end of next year, accounting for 51% of all digital ad spend. UK TV advertising continues strong, but print ads are not as strong.

Overall UK advertising spend is also increasing, exhibiting the fastest increase in four years. According to the Advertising Association/Warc Expenditures report, UK advertising spend reached £18,553 billion in 2014, with more than 5% growth projected in 2015 and 2016.

At the same time, UK marketers are choosing to work on some ad projects in-house, which will lead to higher consolidation among ad agencies and fewer agencies overall.

What will ongoing technological advances and changes in consumer behaviour mean for advertising in two years or five years in the future?

Entertainment streaming goes mainstream

Roku has just introduced a new product, the Streaming Stick, that plugs into a TV's HDMI port and allows easy streaming of programmes and movies via the BBC iPlayer, Netflix and more.

Like the Google Chromecast, which is widely available in the US but not yet on the market in the UK, the Roku's HDMI access is intended to replace a bulkier set-top box.

Apple TV competes with Roku and Chromecast, offering a compact unit that will stream content from iTunes, YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix and other sources.

In other words, more consumers are choosing to stream entertainment, accelerating trends reported in Ofcom's 2013 analysis of the media market. Consumers still watch TV but they also use a lot of devices to access content. And, of course, the tradition of watching TV live is eroding little by little. With on-demand content available for streaming at any hour, the viewing habits of the world are definitely changing. What will this mean for marketers who typically rely on TV adverts to communicate with viewers? Stay tuned.

Preview of Olympic sponsors' adverts

2012 Games: 588,000+ FB likes, 802,000 Twitter followers

From 27 July, the London 2012 Olympic Games will begin, a sports and marketing extravaganza.  

Marketing Week and the Telegraph have posted their picks of the best adverts from Olympic sponsors, to date.

On both lists: P&G's 'Thank you, Mum', Omega's 'Start me up' and Adidas' 'Take the Stage' adverts.

Marketing Week also lists Coca-Cola and Cadbury. The Telegraph adds British Airways and EDF. Lots more marketing on the way after the games begin.

Telly Ads

According to a recent study, consumers remember TV ads more than they remember online ads. (Even newspaper ads were more memorable than TV ads.) But most of those surveyed also said that when they record a TV programme to watch later, they skip through the ads.

So who's watching telly ads? You, if you click to tellyAds, where you can view ads from 2006-7-8-9 or even yesterday. And if you want to see older adverts, look at these tellyAds links. Not just nostalgic, also instructive. While you watch, see if you can determine the target audience, the action the advertiser wants the viewer to take, the specific benefits or attributes being featured and the brand image being communicated.