Online ad spend in Russia grew 27% in 2013

"IAB Europe, in association with IHS Technology, has launched the AdEx Benchmark 2013 Report* – the definitive guide to the state of the European online advertising market.
The report is a comprehensive perspective of online advertising spend across Europe which is growing ever important in light of the development of digital business, policy formulation, the increasingly pan-regional nature of digital advertising investments and the contextualisation of European markets within a wider global framework. This report is a response to these challenges and requirements. Since its inception in 2006, the number of participating countries has doubled, recognising the importance of this task.
This year the report reveals that online advertising grew 11.9% to a market value of €27.3bn in 2013 and it is not only the developing markets which are leading this growth. Mature markets which have benefited from innovation in online advertising technology are also driving growth, demonstrating the industry’s sustainability.
Top 10 Rankings – year-on-year growth
1. Russia – 26.8%
2. Turkey – 24.3%
3. Slovakia – 17.3%
4. UK – 16.2%
5. Hungary – 16.0%
6. Austria – 15.7%
7. Norway – 14.7%
8. Serbia – 13.4%
9. Italy - 13.3%
10. Romania – 13.0%
Since IAB Europe began documenting the size of the European online advertising market in 2006, spend has grown every year. Online remains second largest media category in Europe for the second year in a row and the gap between online and newspapers is expected to widen in 2014.
Online advertising grew across all formats in 2013. Format standardisation, advancements in targeting and the upsurge of online video advertising increased confidence in display advertising triggering new spend, particularly from brand advertisers.
Display advertising saw the highest level of growth (up 14.9% from 2012) with social media and mobile driving this rise. In 2013, for the first time, mobile accounted for a double-digit proportion of total display ad spend at 11.8%. Mobile is now an integral part of advertiser’s budgets – with mobile internet penetration increasing significantly across all of Europe the mobile medium is a more attractive space in which advertisers can reach their audience.
Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe “The report shows not only continued migration of some traditional media spend to digital, but more importantly the creation of new advertising opportunities within digital via the increasing penetration and sophistication of programmatic trading, mobile and video advertising. As brand advertisers realise the potential of the online channel IAB Europe envisages an increase in programmatic trading of premium digital advertising, including video.”
Online video advertising showed strong growth, increasing by 45.4% in 2013, to nearly €1.2 billion. Video advertising is attracting more brand advertisers online with video advertising resembling TV advertising in terms of creative format, campaign objectives and measurement metrics.
Daniel Knapp, Director of Advertising Research at IHS Technology and author of the research, said, “Online advertising is more resilient against macroeconomic turmoil than other media. Total advertising across all media declined 2.9% in Europe in 2013, but would have experienced a steeper fall at 8.3% without the contribution of online. Performance-based models, increase in brand spend and the use of data-driven targeting and automation along with the rise of mobile and social media advertising has enabled online to outperform other media even in tough economic times.”"
Source:  Press release from IAB Europe, 11th July 2014
See the initial press release announcing the total spend here