IAB Europe, in collaboration with IHS Technology, has today published the first ever AdEx Benchmark H1 2015 report1. The report reveals that online advertising grew 9.7% on a like-for-like basis to a value of €16bn for the first half of 2015 from €14.6bn in H1 2014 and is expected to reach almost €34bn for the full year.

The H1 2015 report reveals that CEE helped to drive the growth with a double-digit increase of 12.9% whilst the more mature markets in Western Europe also experienced a growth of 9.3%.

Display advertising now accounts for €5.6bn of all online advertising spend with a growth rate of 13.0% and indeed in Western Europe display experienced a 12.6% growth, the highest of all formats, suggesting an improvement in targeting, formats and data strategies for brand advertising.

Mobile continues to takes a more central role in consumer’s lives and 61% of European consumers now use a smartphone2. It is no surprise then that mobile display advertising spend increased 57.5% surpassing the €1bn in the first half of this year and accounting for 24% of all display advertising. Video also continues to flourish surpassing the €1bn mark as publishers develop their video monetisation strategies.

The report is a comprehensive perspective of online advertising spend across Europe which is growing ever more essential in the light of European policy formulation, attracting global start-up funding, benchmarking market development trends, the increasingly pan-regional nature of digital advertising investments and the role of Europe’s digital economy in a global context.

Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe said, “This new half yearly AdEx Benchmark reports reveals that formats which enable marketers to deliver digital brand campaigns at scale are the high-growth areas. As an industry body we continue to work with our members to invest in research, develop standards and guidelines, and deliver education to increase knowledge and best practice in digital advertising.”

Daniel Knapp, Senior Director of Advertising Research at IHS Technology and author of the research, said, "The AdEx Benchmark H1 2015 research highlights the rapid innovation of the online advertising industry. The acceleration of the display growth rate to 12.6%, particularly in mature markets where online is already the largest advertising medium, shows that advancements in mobile, video and advertising technology are driving the online ad market. We expect H2 2015 to perform better than H1 and online to lift an otherwise flat European advertising market.”

IAB Europe members can download the report by logging into the IAB Europe website. Non-members can request the report by contacting: adex@iabeurope.eu

Online advertising has expanded from a nascent industry into a powerhouse over the past decade and a half.  It now generates over a million jobs in the EU-28 economy, and contributes more than € 100 billion of gross value added (GVA)*. The figures are estimates published today in a study produced by IHS and sponsored by IAB Europe, “Paving the way: online advertising in the European economy”.

The study represents the first serious attempt to detail online advertising’s contribution to the overall EU economy measured in jobs.

Online advertising generated € 30.7 billion of revenue for European publishers in 2014, nearly a third of total advertising revenue.  Looking purely at digital publishing (as opposed to traditional and digital combined), advertising is by far the most important source for funding journalistic content, providing 75% of all online revenues.

Similarly, the buoyant mobile content market depends on advertising. In 2015, advertising replaced paid-for app revenues as the top revenue source.

Digital is now the second largest advertising sector in Europe, behind only television. By the end of 2015, it is predicted to pull ahead of TV in at least the most advanced EU markets.

By funding the Internet, online advertising provides European consumers with a wide range of educational, scientific, informational and entertainment services at little or no cost.

Online advertising also acts as an incubator for high-end data analytics and other digital skills that can then be deployed elsewhere in the economy.  “As advertising becomes increasingly data-driven and technology-centric, the sector is at the forefront of hiring and nurturing talent that possesses the skills to transform and future-proof other industries”, said Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe.

Some of these skills are those that are required to deliver a new way of buying and selling online advertising – “programmatic” – an umbrella term for automated transactional mechanisms using data and software.  “Programmatic has emerged as a key growth area, and Europe has already shown that it can produce world-leading talent in this space”, noted John Wittesaele, Managing Director, EMEA for GroupM Connect and IAB Europe Board Member.

In the study, IAB Europe makes recommendations for policy-makers seeking to protect the benefits accruing to users from the advertising-funded Internet, and digital innovation in Europe.  These recommendations include a call for data protection rules that match regulatory scrutiny to actual risk to consumers better than the texts currently under negotiation between the EU institutions.

The complete report is available here.