SignageWire

MarketingCharts writes that:

Search, the dominant new medium, will grow 24.0% to $13.8 billion in 2009, whereas 2008's growth over 2007 will have been higher: 26.5%.

The fastest-growing emerging medium will be online video, growing 45.0%, to $805 million, but slower than 2008's projected growth of 54.2% and 2007's 67.4%.

Social media will grow 37.4%, to $1.474 billion, in 2009; it is projected to grow 60.8% this year, though in 2007 it grew 141.7% - albeit from a low base.

Gaming will grow 27.4%, to $296 million, in 2009; it is projected to grow 35.6% in 2008, compared with 51.9% in 2007.

Mobile will grow 42.6%, to $298 million, in 2009, compared with 74.2% growth in 2008 and 118.2% in 2007.

Despite the pending digital TV conversion, 'advanced TV' as an emerging medium will grow 13.7%, to $183 million, in 2009, compared with 20.1% growth anticipated in 2008.

Emerging out-of-home (OOH) is expected to grow 23.1%, to $1.592 billion, in 2008 - and 22.7%, to 1.954 billion, in 2009.

Our take:

It's unclear how much of emerging out-of-home digital signage networks might occupy, there's no doubt that our sector is growing as fast or faster than the 23% estimated above. Some anecdotal evidence suggests that it might be as high as 100% in North America, and even more in Asia.  However, even with that kind of aggressive growth, it's clear that digital signs and other similar display technologies still only account for a very tiny portion (percentage-wise) of the total ad spend. This, despite suggestions that marketing at-retail can be far more effective than above-the-line advertising like TV commercials, which still control the bulk of the ad money today.