Travel and telecom upped the ante in programmatic advertising and real-time bidding (RTB) between January and April, moving to become the most competitive industries in the area globally.

Travel and telecom both became 49% more competitive between January and April this year compared to the same period in 2013, according to real-time marketing company Turn.

Meanwhile, sports and recreation became 78% less competitive with auto 71% less aggressive.

The report reveals large increases in how much advertisers from all industry verticals allocate to  mobile, video, display and social channels. It also shows marketers are willing to spend more to reach their target customers.

“As spend and competition increase in mature markets, brands and agencies are using sophisticated audience-centric strategies to drive planning for programmatic advertising. We are seeing a clear shift in marketers’ understanding of how to transform data and insights into an advantage against the competition,” Cindy Deng, managing director Asia-Pacific Turn, said.

“In Australia, advertising activity accelerates through Q2 to the end of the year and we expect competition to be high, especially in video.”

Effective cost-per-thousand impressions (eCPM) for social, display, and mobile advertising increasing year-over-year from January through April 2014:

• Social advertising eCPM soared 64%
• Display eCPM was up 21%
• Mobile eCPM rose 8%
• Video eCPM was essentially flat, decreasing 1%, as an increase in inventory suppressed pricing

“According to the Turn Advertising Intelligence Index, the top five global programmatic advertising verticals making the biggest moves to become more competitive from January through April 2014 vs. 2013 were:

1. Travel – 49% more competitive
2. Telecom – 49% more competitive
3. Financial services – 38% more competitive
4. Arts and entertainment – 15% more competitive
5. Home and garden – 11% more competitive“