MFB: Online and mobile – on the wave in Romania, to attract increased ad budgets by the end of the year
Romanian digital sector, with online and mobile advertising, saw the biggest increase in attracted budgets, year per year, in 2011, as Alexandra Olteanu, Managing Director Initiative Romania, said, Wednesday, at the launch of Media Fact Book.
As the internet penetration increased by 47% at national level, now Romania has between 9-11 million internet users, as the count couldn’t be perfectly accurate because many use internet on more devices in the same time.
According to data given at MFB launch, the value of Romanian online market was of Euro 34M in 2011 and is estimated to reach to Euro 41M by the end of the year, with telecom, finance and auto being the categories of advertisers that invest most in this channel.
Initiative estimates a 20% increase in online advertising budgets (display & performance) in 2012. Performance shows growth in both net value and share, while display is decreasing.
As mobile internet and smartphone penetration also increased, Initiative expects mobile search to grow and advertisers to be more and more interested in localized mobile search campaigns.
At its turn, social media continues to grow, as Facebook reached to a high number of users and they are spending more and more time on the platform and increased their activities there by 66% (likes and shares). The importance of social media determined companies to go where they public are, with many media opening pages on the platform too, to reach their publics
Online & mobile services (e-commerce, online banking) are expected to grow also, mainly as result of new products’ development and education of the public.
Moreover, as people tend to increasingly go cross-media, advertisers might need to start negotiate brand presence across all channels, be them classic or digital.
When it comes about mobile, people are using mobiles mainly for voice and SMSes. According Initiative data, the number of active internet connections in 2011, both smartphones and USB internet sticks – was of 7.5M. In these circumstances, it is expected for the traffic on mobisites to increase as smartphones penetration increase. As for smartphones penetration on Romanian market, Initiative expects an increase of 20%, after 15% in 2011 and 10% in 2010.
When it comes of mobiles, advertisers are using this channel mainly for push SMS, but are looking and asking for creative solutions more and more adapted for this medium. The advertisers that use the most mobile marketing solutions are from sectors such as Telecom, Finance and Insurance, Publishing, Automotive, Retail and FMCG. On the other hand, in Romania, most used mobiles are Nokia (32% market share), followed by Android devices (29%) and Apple (24%).
High reach and instant ROI generation make from SMS the most popular mobile marketing tool in Romania, as brands realized they can build databases and use them to stay in touch with customers. The mobile app market had a good drive in 2011, as there were launched many new and more complex apps.
For 2012, Initiative estimate an increase of penetration rate of 20% by the end of the year, as retailers and mobile telecom providers are predicting sales of almost 1M smartphones by the end of the year.