• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 19, 2011

In a surprising development, demand for digital media and advertising services appears to be ebbing among some clients of major advertising agencies, according to a recent survey conducted by media buying processing firm Strata. After reporting steady growth over the past two years, digital advertising demand has decreased for the first time between two consecutive quarters, falling to 21.1% of respondents in the fourth quarter of 2010 from 26.0% of respondents in the third quarter of 2010.

Strata, which is based in Chicago and owned by Philadelphia-based media conglomerate Comcast Corp., said it also found that demand for mobile media services is "not yet living up to industry hype."

"Agencies expressed the predominant obstacle with digital advertising is the lack of channel effectiveness," the Strata report said, adding, "Nonetheless, within digital advertising, social media continues to be a hot medium of advertising: 79% of agencies are looking to use Facebook as the dominant social media platform in their clients' campaigns, with Twitter second at 46%."

Strata President-CEO John Shelton, noted that advertisers and agencies are "more confident" about the economy, but that most of that recent momentum is being reinvested in demand for traditional media services, especially TV, which has experienced the greatest uptick.

"Concurrently, we see that the focus on digital has fallen off a bit. While still hot, it is used more in a solid media mix than more dollars heading its way," Shelton stated.

The Strata survey also found that while mobile advertising is a hot subject in the industry, advertising budgets have not followed. Of all interactive advertising, mobile was a distant fourth in advertisers' minds (at 29%), behind online display (80%), social media (61%), and search (60%).

The iPhone remains the top mobile device of interest to advertisers, with more than 80% expressing they are most interest in placing ads on the Apple device. Blackberry outpaces Android, at 51% to Android's 45.8%. Apple's iPad is slowly gaining momentum in the advertising realm, where 31% of advertisers say they are interested in placing ads on the new device - a 22% increase from the previous quarter.

Over the past three years that Strata has been tracking demand for advertising and media services among the agencies it services, it has seen a steady uptick in overall demand, which grew from a low of 22.5% in 2008 to 51% in the fourth quarter of 2010.