(Direct Newsline)—Overall advertising revenues worldwide are projected to reach $707 billion by 2012, with much of the growth coming from interactive advertising formats, according to latest forecast from the Kelsey Group market research firm. That’s up from just over $600 billion last year.
Excluding mobile advertising, interactive advertising is expected to increase from $45 billion in 2007 to $147 billion by 2012. This represents more than a 23% growth in ad revenues globally.
“It’s no surprise that the global advertising industry is experiencing a full scale shift to mixed media platforms, with interactive advertising driving a significant share of overall industry growth,” Matt Booth, senior vice president of interactive local media at Kelsey Group, said in a statement.
Growth in interactive advertising is being fueled by a migration from traditional ad spending to new interactive media formats, in addition to growth of the overall Internet audience and broadband connections.
Kelsey Group projects spending on Internet search and other interactive advertising formats, will account for 21% of global spending on advertising by 2012.
U.S. interactive advertising revenues will grow from $22.5 billion in 2007 to $62.4 billion by 2012, reflecting a 22.6% increase, according to Kelsey’s forecast. It projects Canadian interactive advertising will increase from $1.3 billion (U.S) in 2007 to $3.3 billion (U.S.) by 2012, a 21.3% increase.
Worldwide, Kelsey expects local search engine ad revenues will grow to $6.6 billion, up from $2.1 billion in 2007.
International growth in Internet Yellow Pages advertising will reach $9.2 billion, compared to $3.7 billion in 2007, Kelsey said. However, it anticipates print Yellow Pages advertising will decline from $27.5 billion in 2007 to $25.6 billion by 2012, a small 1.4% drop.
The Canadian market is one of the few worldwide where Kelsey forecasts a growth in print Yellow Pages, specifically a 1.8% increase in print directory advertising through 2012.