• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, July 2, 2013

If I didn’t know better, I would think people working in the online advertising industry need an awful lot or reassuring. In fact, they seem to be a confident lot, but they keep getting told they’re not wasting their lives on a stupid fad.

The latest hand-holder comes in the form of the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ “Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2013-2017” which becomes the zillionth organization to more or less report that everything is really, really super.

So really, if you work in this space, you can buy that car, or, better yet, make a big donation to an effective environmental organization. By 2017, you might be much happier you spent your money that way. But I digress.

Let’s say, despite my advice,  you want to buy the car, and the sales guy wants some proof you work for a legit outfit, an understandable question when you consider that some big names in the online advertising and related businesses (Mashable, Awesomeness, TubeMogul, Smosh) sound pretty shaky.

You can reliable report that no less than PwC says North American online ad spend reached $39.8 billion in 2012, and will almost  double to $75.8 billion by 2017. (Ninety percent of that North American figure is attributable to the American online biz.)

Okay, the dealership thinks it can make a deal.

The PwC report says spending is shifting away from display to rich media and video ads, and that mobile and video advertising are the two fastest growing areas, and that in five years, mobile advertising will take in $14.1 billion, and other video advertising $6.6 billion.

Look at the trajectory. PwC (its report has good charts) says mobile advertising took in $3.4 billion in 2012 and will have ad revenues of nearly $5.8 billion this year. But by 2017... well, that jumps to that $14 billion figure. That’s 32.2% compounded annual growth.

For online video advertising, the figures are somewhat less impressive.  Just somewhat.  Online video advertising took in about $2.5 billion last year, will top $3 billion this year and will more than double that to $6.6 billion by 2017, for a not-too-shabby 21.6% CAGR in that time frame.         

Five years from now, search and online display will still make up the majority of the ad spend in North America, PwC says, but video and mobile will make up 30% of the total by that  time.

So car-wise, you could splurge and get the fancy-options package on that Range Rover. Mud flaps! 

Charitable giving is a very good thing, too.

pj@mediapost.com