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1. GLOBAL MOBILE ADVERTISING SPEND
A co-operation between IAB Mobile Marketing
Center of Excellence in the U.S., IAB Europe and IHS
Screen Digest
2011 1ST EDITION

2. Methodology
• IHS Screen Digest authored the research based on identification of
mobile ad spend reported by IABs, harmonising the data, and
employing statistical and econometric models to infer a global market
size, split across advertising formats.
• Market size is gross, defined as after discounts, before agency
commissions. Global market sizing and format split is based on
reported data by local IABs and a statistical and econometric model.
Reported data has been harmonized to adjust for discounts and
agency commissions. Modeled data is based on variables such as
smartphone penetration, 3G subscriptions, messaging volume. Model
has been refined based on benchmarking variables such as ad spend
per capita and ad spend per mobile subscriber as well as through
interviews with key players across the mobile advertising ecosystem.
Model also takes into account typology of mobile ad markets in terms
of maturity and format proliferation.
2

3. Total global mobile advertising spend
€3.8 billion
($5.3 billion)
*2011 annual average exchange rate
of 1 EUR = 1.39284 USD
3

4. Mobile advertising spend by region
Mobile ad spend in €m
1,600
1375
1,400
1204
1,200
991
1,000
800
600
400
200 135 124
0
Asia-Pacific North America Europe Latin America Middle East &
Africa

5. Mobile advertising dominated by search
28%
62%
10%
Search
Messaging
Display

6. Proliferation of formats varies across markets
• Share
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50% Messaging
40% Search
30% Display
20%
10%
0%
Europe North Latin America Asia-Pacific Middle East & Global
America Africa

7. Numbers in EU€
2011: Mobile ad spend in €million
Display Search Messaging Total
Europe 263 646 81 991
North America 410 582 211 1,204
Latin America 22 53 59 135
Asia-Pacific 352 994 30 1,375
Middle East & Africa 32 89 3 124
Global 1,080 2,364 385 3,829

8. Numbers in US$
2011: Mobile ad spend in $million
Display Search Messaging Total
Europe 367 900 114 1,380
North America 572 811 295 1,677
Latin America 31 74 83 188
Asia-Pacific 491 1,384 41 1,916
Middle East & Africa 44 124 4 172
Global 1,504 3,292 536 5,333

9. Contact
• Press: Lucy Green, lgreen@greenfieldscommunications.com
• IAB Europe: Alison Fennah, vprm@iabeurope.eu
• IHS Screen Digest: Daniel Knapp, knapp.daniel@ihs.com