Executive Summary

Mobile ad spend will top $93 billion in 2019, over $20 billion more than what will be spent on TV. With so much money flowing into mobile advertising, what will be the big changes and trends in the mobile landscape in 2019?

• What are major trends outside of advertising that will affect the mobile advertising ecosystem? The trend toward privacy regulation will likely continue in 2019, which will affect data use. Consumers are also looking for ways to reduce screen time, which may increase opportunities in audio advertising. One trend that won’t affect advertising yet is 5G, which won’t come on line with any scale until 2020, but it will begin to affect investments in media and ad tech.
• What will happen in mobile video in 2019? Many of the large platforms will double down on high-quality video shows geared for a mobile audience. This will increase demand for vertical video. Video advertising will also become less skippable and more interactive.
• How will artificial intelligence (AI) influence mobile advertising? It’s hard to limit the impact of AI to just a few areas, but three important ones will be personal assistants, modeling consumer paths to purchase and augmented reality (AR)—particularly visual search. The role of personal assistants might be the most important, since tools such as Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa will tie the mobile phone more deeply to the rest of our device ecosystem.

WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT? This report will present 10 mobile trends that are likely to influence mobile marketing in 2019.

KEY STAT: Mobile will capture $93.25 billion in ad spend, making it far and away the leading platform for US advertisers.