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BIA/Kelsey Forecast Reveals Local Ad Spending in California to Top $18.5B in 2017 with Retail, General Services and Automotive Top Spenders; Real Estate Fastest Growing Vertical

May 10, 2017

LOCAL IMPACT Los Angeles on June 7 will Explore TV, Mobile, Video and Social Advertising Spending, Media Trends, Digital Competition, and Voice and AI Search

CHANTILLY, Va. (May 10, 2017) Local advertising in the state of California will reach $18.5 billion in 2017 across 12 markets, according to BIA/Kelsey’s local market advertising forecast. The key vertical markets of retail, automotive and general services (which includes professional services such as legal services to landscaping) will together spend nearly $8 billion divided between traditional media and online/digital, with mobile advertising experiencing the highest growth. The fastest growing vertical ad category in California is real estate, projected to grow by 29 percent through 2021.

In the top three California markets — Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento – the spend by the top three verticals varies significantly, according to BIA/Kelsey’s forecast.

  • Retail: LA $1.58 billion; San Francisco $815.3 million; Sacramento $361.3 million;
  • Automotive: LA $1.03 billion; San Francisco $411.9 million; Sacramento $190.0 million;
  • General Services: LA $994.6 million; San Francisco $474.2 million; Sacramento $204.6 million;

“Our California forecast reveals that advertisers still heavily trend to traditional advertising choices like direct mail and TV, however future growth favors digital advertising options,” said Mark Fratrik, chief economist and SVP, BIA/Kelsey. “As digital solutions mature, especially with emerging technologies like voice search and artificial intelligence that consumers are adopting at breakneck speed, there will be new opportunities for local advertisers to market products even more efficiently and effectively than today; hence we see a major shift in ad spend over the next five years.”

Of the 12 media tracked in the firm’s forecast, the top five choices for vertical expenditures in California for 2017 include:

  • Direct mail ($4.60 billion)
  • TV Over-the-Air ($2.68 billion)
  • Online ($2.30 billion)
  • Mobile ($1.99 billion)
  • Radio Over-the-Air ($1.58 billion)

Over the next five years, local real estate digital and traditional ad spending growth in California is projected to primarily grow through the following channels:

  • Online ($197 million)
  • Mobile ($155.6 million)
  • Television Over-the-Air ($43.9 million)
  • Out of Home ($42 million)
  • Newspaper Print ($36.2 million)

BIA/Kelsey will present its California market intelligence at its LOCAL IMPACT Los Angeles event on Wednesday, June 7 in Los Angeles. A signature session of the half day event is the Share of Wallet session that will offer a thorough examination of where ad dollars are being spent across top media in local CA markets and where they will migrate over the next five years. Joining this session is the CEO of social media ratings company Share Rocket, Chris Kraft, who will explore the social activity of local California television stations, and Rob Weisbord, COO Sinclair Digital Group (a division of Sinclair Broadcasting), who will examine how those stations can monetize online/digital opportunities.

Other sessions during the day will examine call intelligence in the AI age, advertiser trends and expectations, mobile retail case studies and interactive sessions on programmatic, ATSC 3.0, national-to-local advertising and digital buying and selling. LOCAL IMPACT welcomes speakers from MomentFeed, Reach Local, Rely Media, Share Rocket, Sinclair Digital Group, TVB, VoiceBase, YP. Sponsors include xAd and YP. Broadcasting & Cable and the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA). Details and registration can be found here.

About BIA/Kelsey’s Forecasts

BIA/Kelsey offers both nationwide and local market forecasts in its ADVantage dashboard, delivering a direct view of national and local market ad spending. For more details, email mailto:advantage@biakelsey.com.

About BIA/Kelsey

BIA/Kelsey (@BIAKelsey) combines data, analytics and insights to provide its clients with the information they need for grounded financial and strategic action. Since 1983, BIA/Kelsey has been a valuable resource for many of the leading companies in media and the financial and legal community serving media and telecom, as well as the FCC and other government agencies. Today, BIA/Kelsey offers a broad range of research, consulting services and conferences to traditional and new media companies. Learn more about BIA/Kelsey at www.biakelsey.com.

Additional information is available at https://www.bia.com, on the company’s Local Media Watch blogTwitter, and Facebook. Sign up for one of the company’s three newsletters: Local Media Daily,Local Tech Daily or Local Commerce Daily that cover different areas of media and technology.

Media Contacts:
MacKenzie Lovings
(703) 802-2991
mlovings@biakelsey.com

Robert Udowitz
(703) 621-8060
rudowitz@biakelsey.com