Like an oncoming storm seen in the distance, SuperPAC advertising dollars have some of us worried about where, and how deep, this precipitation will penetrate our media spheres in the coming months. As voters we can expect an influx of candidate ads in print, television radio and online this election cycle. But aside from a campaign robo-call, I have yet to consider the mobile advertising inplications of the campaigns. Today’s, New York Times‘ Media Decoder blog post highlights 2011 mobile advertising revenue and raised my eyebrows.
Citing the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, “Mobile experienced the fastest growth of all categories – triple-digit growth year-over-year – up 149 percent to $1.6 billion in full-year 2011 from $0.6 billion in 2010.” This increase in mobile advertising is included in the online advertising revenue which was $31.74 billion in 2011. At this level, Tanzina Vega reports, online is now directly competitive with cable advertising revenue ($30 billion in 2011), and broadcast ad revenue ($38.5 billion).
What this can mean for advertisers, like political candidates and their PACs, is that online advertising is making a competitive number of impressions on the marketplace. So if we’re getting ready to batten down the hatches when the windfall of campaign ads canvas the airwaves, does that mean we’ll have to delete our favorite apps and bookmarks from our mobile phones to avoid all these ads? Call me anxious, but this data seems to support a wellspring of ad opportunity for marketers and potential policymakers.