From the first banner ad in 1994 through the age of content and multichannel media, Adobe provides an in-depth look at digital advertising through its first 25 years of existence in this presentation.

1. 25th Anniversary of Digital Advertising
A trip down memory lane with stats, lessons, and insights for today’s hyperconnected world.

2. © 2019 Adobe Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
We’ve come a long way since 1994 and the era of clicks and blinking
banners. Today, digital advertising is all about genuine experiences that
resonate with customers. We’re proud to have been a part of this last
quarter century of digital transformation, but we’re even more excited to
keep innovating into the future. Follow along as we share a few highlights
from our report Now We’re 25.

3. © 2019 Adobe Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
1994: The modern display ad is born. AT&T purchased a small piece of web real
estate on HotWired.com that said, “Have you ever clicked your mouse right HERE?
You will.”
Approximately 44% of those who saw the ad clicked on it, according to The Atlantic.

4. © 2019 Adobe Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. 4
“In the early years of banner advertising, it was
like being part of a club. We were just a small
group of people creating stuff, trying stuff out,
trying to figure out how to pay for it, how to
contract it – it was such a blur, and yet
completely exciting. We were building new
ground that never existed before.”
Sharon Otterman
CMO
William Hill

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“This ‘Wild West’ period was an
opportunity to try to figure out the
different ways in which creative ads can
engage and attract a consumer online.
When I think back to where we were 20, 25
years ago from a creative standpoint [on
digital platforms], we basically employed
any tactic that we could to try and get
someone to stop and notice an ad. There
were no rules and no real boundaries as to
what we could do.”
Michael Miller
Vice President of Creative
Experience and Social
Media
T-Mobile

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70 percent of Americans say pop-up ads are
annoying, according to InsightsOne.
Ethan Zuckerman
Coder of first pop-up ad,
which appeared in 1997.
I’m sorry.
Our intentions
were good.

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In 2000, Google launched
AdWords. A year later it
generated $70 million in
advertising revenue, according to
Statista. Digital global ad
expenditures topped $230 billion
in 2018. This accounts for about
40 percent of all global ad spend,
according to Kagan, S&P, and
Zenith report.
Global advertising spending over time.
Source: Kagan, S&P, and Zenith

8. © 2019 Adobe Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. 8
By the turn of the millennium,
landline phones were the
standard, but mobile phones were
fast on the rise. The first mobile
advertisements appeared in 2000
when a Finnish news provider
offered Short Message Service
(SMS) bulletins sponsored by
advertisers.
Today, global mobile ad
spending is above $230B.

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Long before digital video
recorders and DVDs, the
videocassette recorder reigned
supreme in the ’80s and ’90s.
Fast forward to 2019, in the
wake of the digital revolution,
where about 195 million U.S.
viewers will watch CTV and are
streaming close to eight billion
hours per month on devices like
Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon
Fire TV.

10. © 2019 Adobe Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
Digital disruption in entertainment didn’t stop with the demise of
the video store. Online streaming services threaten to upend
incumbents as the OTT wars heat up with over 35 million viewers
projected by 2022 across potentially dozens of services and platforms.

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By 2006, social media started to define
the web experience. Facebook introduced
sponsored links and smaller display ads
that focused on user demographics and
interests. Other social networks followed
suit, also adopting hyper-targeted ads.
Twitter launched, introducing the concept
of the 140-character tweet and making
“hashtag” a household word. It later
emerges as a major advertising platform.

12. © 2019 Adobe Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
We’ve come a long way since 1994 and the era of clicks and blinking
banners. Today, digital advertising is all about genuine experiences that
resonate with customers. We’re proud to have been a part of this last
quarter century of digital transformation, but we’re even more excited to
keep innovating into the future. Follow along as we share a few highlights
from our report Now We’re 25.
By the late 2000s,
advertising is being revolutionized.
• YouTube launches and the world tunes in,
watching 8 million videos per day. Video
ads go mainstream.
• Apple releases the first iPhone, paving the
way for mobile to reface digital advertising.
• A decade after the first keyword auction,
programmatic ad buying is born.

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“I think there is going
to be a ‘jump the shark’
moment at some point
when advertisers get fed up
with having to deal with yet
another walled garden.”
Mark Read
CEO
WPP
Percent of total digital ad spending.
Source: eMarketer

14. © 2019 Adobe Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
In the last few years, advertisers have insourced
functions that traditionally were outsourced, like media
buying and creative development. But what brands
really want is greater control over data and decisions on
marketing spend—combined with deep knowledge and
industry relationships owned by the agency. The talent
gap remains the biggest pain point as programmatic
technology evolves.

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What the
future
holds.
”People want advertisers to be a part of the conversation. Not some
loud, boorish [person] interrupting the conversation—and we’ve been
trying to get there for decades now on the internet. And I think with
data, and some more application of creativity, we can get there. We can
understand audiences well enough, we can get audience permission, we
can create enough assets and put them together in enough unique ways
using technology. Where advertising does become valuable content.”
John Battelle
Co-Founder, Wired
CEO, NewCo
”It will be very interesting to see how sustainable some of the subscription
models are over the long term. I think you’ve got this duality happening
within the media space today of media companies really trying to make
subscriptions work for them. If they do make it work for them, what’s the
impact on the advertising ecosystem? Then you’ve got another model with
bigger hitters coming in and trying to figure out ways that they can better
monetize their platforms through advertising, like the likes of Amazon.”
Anthony P. Martinez
Global Director, Digital Marketing & Media, Coca-Cola

16. © 2019 Adobe Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

17. © 2019 Adobe Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
About the Adobe Summit 2019 ’90s Simulator
Adobe Summit in Las Vegas included a 1994 “time-
machine” experience where attendees explored life in a
’90s corporate office, video rental store, and living room.
Learn more about the
25th anniversary of digital advertising.

18. © 2019 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
Sources
§ “15 Mind-Blowing Stats About TV Advertising,” CMO.com, May 2019.
§ “A Look Back At 25 Years Of Digital Advertising,” CMO.com, March 2019.
§ “Advertising Revenue of Google from 2001 to 2018 (in Billion U.S. Dollars),” Statista, 2019.
§ Anthony Martinez, personal interview with Ryan Levitt, February 2019.
§ eMarketer, Mobile Ad Spending, Source: eMarketer, February 2019.
§ “Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Results Conference Call,” Facebook, January 30, 2019.
§ “Global Advertising Expenditure Forecasts,” Kagan, S&P Global Market Intelligence, and Zenith,
December 2018.
§ InsightsOne, 2013 Bad Ads Survey.
§ John Battelle, personal interview with Ryan Levitt, February 2019.
§ Mark Read, personal interview with Ryan Levitt, February 2019.
§ Michael Miller, personal interview with Ryan Levitt, February 2019.
§ Sharon Otterman, personal interview with Ryan Levitt, February 2019.
§ “The First-Ever Banner Ad on the Web,” Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic, April 21, 2017.
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