Online advertising in the UK A report commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport January 2019 Stephen Adshead, Grant Forsyth, Sam Wood, Laura Wilkinson plumconsulting.co.uk About Plum Plum is an independent consulting firm, focused on the telecommunications, media, technology, and adjacent sectors. We apply extensive industry knowledge, consulting experience, and rigorous analysis to address challenges and opportunities across regulatory, radio spectrum, economic, commercial, and technology domains. About this study This study for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport explores the structure of the online advertising sector, and the movement of data, content and money through the online advertising supply chain. It also assesses the potential for harms to arise as a result of the structure and operation of the sector. Plum Consulting 10 Fitzroy Square London W1T 5HP T +44 20 7047 1919 E
[email protected] Online advertising in the UK Contents Executive summary 5 Introduction 5 Taxonomy of online advertising 6 Market size and growth 7 Value chain and roles 8 Market dynamics 11 Money flows 12 Data flows 14 Ad flows and control points 16 Assessment of potential harms 17 1 Introduction 20 1.1 Terms of reference 20 1.2 Methodology 20 1.3 Caveats 20 1.4 Press publishers 21 1.5 Structure of this report 21 2 Taxonomy of online advertising 22 2.1 Online advertising formats 22 2.2 Targeting of online advertising 33 2.3 Future developments 34 3 Market size and growth 35 4 Value chain and roles 40 4.1 Overview