Senior marketing executives are optimistic about merger and acquisition activity in 2016. AdMedia Partners reports in its annual market survey that about two-thirds of its respondents intend to seek acquisitions in 2016, and 54 percent intend to sell. The survey found that 68 percent of respondents were approached by a prospective buyer in 2015 and that 81 percent expect that M&A by strategic buyers will increase in 2016.

The survey found that the areas respondents were most interested in expanding or acquiring were in analytics, digital, social and custom content/native advertising sectors. In Admedia’s 2016 survey, three sectors saw an increase in the percentage of respondent interest: ad tech, up from 29 percent last year to 33 percent; market research, up from 18 percent last year to 25 percent; and custom content/native advertising, up from 44 percent to 46 percent.

That digital drew a lot of attention in the survey is not surprising; 74 percent of respondents expect that digital will represent 40 percent or more of their business in two years. Mobile is expected to grow as well, with 35 percent of those surveyed expecting mobile will account for more than 40 percent of their review within the next two years. The survey also found strong expectations for growth in programmatic (57 percent), social (55 percent), custom content/native ads (55 percent) and video (53 percent).

For more on AdMedia Partner’s survey, click here.