Mobile marketing and advertising spend in SA will reach R1bn/year by 2012, according to a new study.

Mobile advertising revenues were about R500m in the past year. Year-on-year growth trends suggest this figure will double by 2012, according to the survey by Vodacom, MXit and Google, who are due to present the survey results at the Mobile Media Mindblast conference in Cape Town next week.

Estimates on spend include display, search and message-based ads.

“Previous estimates dramatically underestimated the size of the mobile advertising industry as they focused on reports submitted to the Digital Media & Marketing Association by online publishers,” says Jason Probert, head of Vodacom Mobile Media.

“When you take into account the entire mobile advertising ecosystem and include mobile ad networks like AdMob, operator services like Apple, mobile search and social networks like MXit, the picture is dramatically different.”

According to recent reports, worldwide mobile advertising spend is expected to grow by more than 50% annually, from US$12,6bn in 2011 to $41,8bn in 2015. Display advertising is the biggest format in the mix, making up $6,8bn, followed by mobile search at $3bn and in-application advertising third at $2,2bn. The remaining spend is made up of messaging, streaming music, mobile TV and mobile video.

In SA, mobile messaging ads lead the way, followed by display and in-app formats. — Staff reporter, TechCentral