Commentary

A British Invasion That's Not The Beatles

Our British counterparts have always been a step ahead of us when it comes to the cutting edge – in music, in fashion and now in technology, too. It seems the Brits have essentially bypassed the laptop and gone straight to the more portable tablet. While the U.S. and U.K. are parallel on mobile phone usage, the Brits surpass us in tablet use, according to a study published in The Guardian

In fact, while Adobe reports that tablets now account for 8% of all Web traffic globally, tablets are driving 70% more Web traffic than smartphones in Britain.  Tablets are preferred over phones for retail sites in particular, and print publications are enjoying a renaissance in readership, thanks to the accessibility of tablet devices. Video viewership on tablets is slightly higher than smartphones, and has tripled in growth over last year.

Marketers are keeping pace, and tablet advertising is increasing as well. In fact, “fast moving consumer goods” (FMCG) advertisers in the U.K. are focusing heavily on tablets for branding. Per eConsultancy, nearly half (46%) of FMCG advertisers named brand awareness as a primary campaign goal, compared to an overall average of 14% across all industries. Site traffic and “sustained in-market presence” ranked second and third among campaign goals, while driving foot traffic was a priority for only 5% of advertisers.

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Forrester predicts that Britons will lead innovation in brand marketing, particularly since many marketers have display advertising in excess of €1 million. U.K. marketers are also more concerned about brand awareness than other marketers in Europe, and as a result “favor opportunities for reach and interactivity.” 

This is consistent with a recent study by iMedia UK and Martini Media to determine where marketers in Great Britain were directing their budgets. Among the many findings, it was discovered that study participants plan to increase their investments in video by 40% and in rich media by 36% - both of which deliver interactivity and invite users to engage. 70% of the 226 marketers surveyed, who represent both brand marketers and agencies, leverage cross-platform campaigns that can be run across screens and dramatically improve reach.

With so much focus on mobile and branding, one would hope that the Brits would be equally bullish on programmatic. According to both IDC and AdMonsters, they’re getting there. RTB is the fastest-growing segment of the online advertising industry. On both the buy and sell sides of the equation, the U.K. is only slightly behind the U.S. and way ahead of other European countries. In 2012, RTB accounted for 29% of online ad sales compared to 44% in the U.S., far beyond the 8% and 3% seen in Germany and France, respectively. British firms recognize the importance of programmatic to the growth of their industry, however a sluggish adoption by publishers is keeping the segment from really taking off.

As the AdMonsters report states: “This ‘wait and see’ attitude on the part of European publishers may negatively impact the growth of digital ad spending in Europe. As agency holding companies like WPP develop their buying platforms and shift more of their budgets to programmatic buying, they will be inclined to spend more in areas where they can integrate their platforms directly and buy inventory most efficiently. Publishers who do not offer inventory through programmatic channels may risk being left behind.”

With HTML5 beginning to take off on both sides of the pond, and marketers getting seriously bullish on rich media and mobile, premium programmatic will become an obvious next step for the British market. As RTB becomes the leading growth driver for the online advertising industry, IDC sees premium contributing considerably to the overall growth of programmatic, here as well as abroad. The U.K. will lead European growth, but for once, we’ll be ahead of the U.K. on the bleeding edge.

1 comment about "A British Invasion That's Not The Beatles ".
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  1. Keith Pape from 1K Agency, May 7, 2013 at 5:21 p.m.

    I also think we (in the US) will continue to lead in all things mobile over our UK brethren. Their infrastructure is still very much 3G at the best of times with 4G just beginning it's rollout, much less LTE and other high speed tech's that allow for a more rich marketing experience.

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