Digital ad spending was on the move and moving upward during the first half of 2013.
According to the latest estimates of Kantar Media, the total U.S. ad spend market rose 2.0% year-over-year.
“But Q2 2013 was notable for an even faster rate of increase, at 3.5% over Q2 2012,” eMarketer reported Monday.
For H1 2013, digital display ads saw a 5.3% increase. But this estimate excludes video and mobile ads, two digital formats that are seeing among the biggest bumps in investment, suggesting that total digital spending rose by significantly more than the figure cited for display only.
Not surprisingly, retail stayed put as the top spending ad category, but growth in Q2 2013 was minimal compared to a year prior, at just 0.1%.
“The telecom industry grew fastest, at a 19.5% rate,” the report adds, with restaurants and insurance also groing ad spend by double-digit percentages.
eMarketer estimates that total U.S. ad spending will grow 3.6% this year.