The IAB Slovenia Institute presented its findings at the 18th IAB Academy on the topic of AdEx survey on gross investment in digital advertising for 2019. Investments in Slovenia are estimated at EUR 60.7 million, which is an increase of 11% compared to 2018. For this year, the iPROM and Valicon survey »The attitude of Slovenian companies towards digital advertising« before the Covid-19 pandemic predicted a 17% increase in investment in advertising on digital channels. Exact growth is difficult to predict in the given situation, but the interlocutors at the IAB Academy agreed that we are witnessing accelerated digitalisation, which also has a positive impact on digital advertising.

In Slovenia, investment growth in 2019 was 11%, and the total value of the digital advertising market according to the IAB Slovenia Institute, presented at the IAB Academy is estimated at 60.7 million euros. Zoran Savin, President of the IAB Slovenia Institute, pointed out the significant differences in growth within the industries and the media.

Igor Mali, Operations Director at iPROM, also spoke about the forecasts for investments in digital advertising in 2020, presenting the results of a survey on the attitude of Slovenian companies to digital advertising conducted by iPROM and Valicon among 220 Slovenian decision-makers in the field of advertising and marketing earlier this year.

Both surveys show that the digital market in Slovenia is still growing, and due to accelerated digitisation, digital media are expected to gain in importance and role in the advertising pie chart this year.

»From our daily practice in April and May, we estimate that these events, in the same way as the crisis in 2008, will again and further stimulate the development of digital media as a whole, and investment in digital advertising will grow. In accordance with the changes in consumer behaviour that we are already perceiving, the search for new paths and opportunities in digital marketing will be inevitable«, Andrej Ivanec, director of media planning at iPROM, comments on the survey results.

In the Slovenian digital advertising pie chart, the largest share of investments is still intended for display advertising

The AdEx survey for Slovenia shows that Slovenian advertisers also invested the most in display advertising last year (almost 60%), followed by integrated content with about 16 per cent, native advertising with 15 per cent, e-mail marketing with about 5 per cent and influencer marketing with 2 per cent of all investments.

The highest investment growth in display advertising (almost 28%) is also predicted this year by the iPROM and Valicon survey, followed by social media advertising (20%), search marketing (18%), e-mail marketing (10%) and influencer marketing. (9%). Given the current situation and the redistribution of media resources, the survey does not communicate absolute numbers at this time, as the situation will become clearer only in the autumn, when it will be easier to say exactly how marketing budgets have been redistributed.

As part of the online event, the President of IAB Slovenia, Zoran Savin, also pointed out the blurring of the boundaries between digital and traditional. There is an increasing number of investments where there is no clear line between digital and traditional media. After all, outdoor advertising is also being digitised at an accelerated pace, and in 2019 it recorded a 63% growth.