It is foreseen that by next year, 33% of the global advertising spending will be invested in digital media. A total of $547 billion dollars is predicted to be invested on digital platforms, surpassing for the first time the spending on TV advertising.

It is comprehensive to observe the growth and dominance of the digital world in advertising; marketers are increasingly directing their spending to social media sites for example to blend their ads with the newsfeed of users’ social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc., which is not only reducing the expenditure on traditional media but creating new spaces ideal for marketing at larger levels. This obviously affects TV networks who face cheaper and more attractive scenarios to be informed and entertained. For example, streaming services, that continue to grow like Netflix that surpasses the 80 million subscribers followed by smaller but not less influential companies such as Hulu, CBS, HBO Now and others.

2016 has indeed been a favorable year for digital media to excel. The Olympics, the controversial political events such as Brexit and US presidential elections, have created a perfect scenario for digital media to show its power and attract advertisers and companies to invest.

Digital is becoming the dominant player in terms of advertising dollars spent, the performance of the digital ad market is being led by mobile and video, it is even expected for mobile ad spending to grow 45.0% in 2017, ¡reaching $45 billion! which indicates a significant change in how we consume content, creating a lot of questions towards the future of marketing and communication in general: is digital media a contender or an ally of television? What does it mean for traditional media like television and newspapers? And, how must companies and investors take advantage of digital media as part of its advertising plan?