SYDNEY: Mobile advertising has advanced significantly in Australia over the past year, developing into a medium for brand building and overtaking channels such as outdoor according to a new report.

The 3rd Annual IAB Mobile Landscape Study, from the Interactive Advertising Bureau trade body, was based on in-depth surveys with 350 marketing and media professionals involved in the digital industry and found widespread satisfaction with the channel.

Fully 93% of buyers said they were happy with the results they had achieved with their mobile advertising activities, while 41% of marketers were using mobile advertising as a significant part of their marketing campaigns.

And eight out of ten survey respondents agreed that the importance of the mobile screen was rising.

"The Australian mobile advertising market has matured in the last twelve months," said Alice Manners, IAB Australia chief executive, "with marketers embracing the medium for more strategic brand-focused activities and overall they are using a broader range of solutions."

Banners and social mobile are already used by pretty much everyone, and mobile video will be approaching that level per the coming year, with 93% of buyers expected to include it in their campaigns.

They also anticipated increasing their use of all other formats, including search (up from 77% to 85%), native advertising (up from 50% to 75%) and in-app advertising (up from 50% to 70%).

Programmatic, meanwhile, is growing in importance: two thirds are already using and a further 23% indicated their intent to use programmatic in the next 12 months.

"Revenue has started to follow consumer usage," Manners observed. "In terms of the total ad revenue pie, total mobile ad spend is now bigger than outdoor total ad spend. It's now bigger than magazine total ad spend and it's now bigger than total metro radio ad spend," she said in remarks reported by Ad News.

Data sourced from IAB Australia, Ad News; additional content by Warc staff