Gemius study: Mobile ads are gaining ground in CEE

Cristina Blanaru Creativity, Digital & Media, Marketing, Mobile, Studies

An average of 3% of advertisements in Central and East Europe is displayed on tablets and phone screens, with Lithuania assuming the leading position in this field, a Gemius study on advertising activities in CEE shows.

The analysis involved online advertising campaigns which were monitored by Gemius in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Hungary. The ranking list includes data concerning all four quarters of 2012.

When comparing the first to the fourth quarter of 2012, one can clearly see that all the researched markets recorded some increase in the share of mobile impressions measured in that period. The most significant rise was observed in Lithuania (by 190 per cent compared with the first quarter). Tablet and telephone generated ad views accounted for nearly 5 per cent of all displayed online ads in that country, which is also the best result in the entire region.

A high increase in portable device displays was also noted in Poland, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary. A somewhat slower pace of changes on the mobile advertising market was seen in: Latvia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovakia, Croatia and Slovenia.

The largest share of ads displayed on portable devices in the fourth quarter of 2012 was observed in Lithuania, Serbia and Hungary. The region’s mean result was 3 per cent at that time. Below this benchmark were: Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Slovenia.

However, the data for all four quarters show that it is not in all the countries that a stable upward trend was noted. Some falls were observed over the year in Hungary (Q4), Slovenia (Q4) and Ukraine (Q3). In turn, on the Czech and Bulgarian markets the share of mobile ads in the total number of online impressions measured in the fourth quarter remained unchanged compared to Q3.

Tamas Acs, Gemius expert in digital advertising, emphasizes that the growing interest in mobile advertising sector is justified by Gemius data. “Mobile devices are used more and more nowadays for surfing the web, what provides marketers a strong signal of a serious interest in this channel for marketing communication. – Data shows that Hungary, Lithuania and Serbia are the market leaders when it comes to consumption of advertisements via mobile devices in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. Although there is still a lot of space to grow the pace of change is enormous and the segment of mobile advertising in this part of the world is increasingly recognized by advertisers”, he said.

The above data originates from gemiusAdMonitor, a comprehensive report on the most popular advertising formats, most frequently advertised industries and trends in mobile advertising, covering 12 countries of Central and East Europe. It is based on gemiusDirectEffect, Gemius online advertising campaigns effectiveness measurement and AdOcean, Gemius ad serving tool to manage the advertising space. The report is prepared every semester starting 2011 and it can be downloaded from www.gemius.com.