Programmatic trading in Australia to exceed global average this year: GroupM
In 2018, 48% of online display investment will be traded programmatically in Australia, surging ahead of the US at 22%, and edging above the expected global average of 47%, GroupM has forecast. The media investment arm of WPP said 20% of online display transactions in Australia were programmatic in 2016, with the figure climbing to 35% last year.
The report also flagged that Australia was the only country showing signs of moving towards “in-housing”, with the UK talking about it, rather than actually doing it, and not much evidence of the trend on show in the US.
GroupM has forecast media consumption will rise in Australia
“Australia is the only country that describes a strong trend to in-housing, so it is a market to watch,” the report said. “Names include the midsize advertisers Foxtel, CommBank and Coles (supermarket).”
Unsurprisingly, the report also predicted a slight downturn in the amount of time Australians will spend engaging with traditional television, print and radio per day this year.
While it predicted adult media usage online will climb from 2.90 hours per day last year to 3.05 hours in 2018, the report said TV viewing time in Australia will decrease from 2.52 hours to 2.50 hours. Radio, GroupM predicted, will fall from 2.04 hours to 2.00 hours, and print will fall from 0.39 hours to 0.35 hours.
Australians, according to the report, spend less time engaging with media than their international counterparts.
In 2018, Australian consumers will spend 7.9 hours with media per day, up from 7.86 hours in 2017, the report said. Globally, however, GroupM said people will spend 9.73 hours with media per day, up from 9.68 hours.
GroupM said the report is compiled using a combination of Census data, Nielsen, Global Web Index, eMarketer, GroupM estimates, NAB Online Retail Index and Roy Morgan.
The report also touched on the digital duopoly, and said Facebook and Google continue to be the key growth rivers of the global digital landscape.
GroupM’s predications for how Australians will consume media this year
“Google search is critical to clients, and YouTube is increasingly important for scaled ‘premium’ video. Concerns over the quality of programmatic inventory in the Google Display Network persist, but remedies are being pursued, Facebook’s success is partly due to the delivery of younger audiences via Instagram. The surge in large-advertiser investment in 2016-2017 also helped double Facebook’s share of digital investment ex-China,” the report said.
Kelly Clark, CEO of GroupM Global said automation and talent were two challenges the industry needed to get on top of.
“One of the downsides of specialisation is the increase in specialists who know more and more about less and less. We have to use automation to liberate brain power, so talented people can look across the media ecosystem to help clients optimise short-term results and create long-term brand value.”
