WildBlueSkies – Trends and strategies in Digital Media

UK Internet advertising expenditure in 2006 notched up £2.016 billion, reaching out to the estmated 31 million people connected to the internet, representing a 41.2% surge in growth as marketers moved their budgets online.
Not only did this herald an increase in the internet’s share of all advertising revenues to 11.4%, up from 7.8% in 2005, it also led to an increase in the entire advertising spend by 1.1% . With almost all expenditure on traditional media in decline, the upward momentum of the internet reflects a new era in marketing communication and consumer behaviour, which is driven by high-speed broadband take-up and user-generated content.

Some headlines from IAB UK

• Spend on the internet overtook advertising in national newspapers, which last year recorded growth of 0.2% to £1.9 billion and a market share of 10.9%. In 2006, the internet was just over half the size of the TV advertising market, which experienced a fall of 4.7% to £3.9 billion.

• Advertising across all traditional media combined fell by £466.1 million year-on-year, a 2.9% decline. However, with the increase in online advertising spend, the entire market grew by 1.1%.

• In the second half of 2006, online advertising experienced its highest market share ever reported when expenditure topped £1.098 billion – a 12.4% share of total UK advertising.

• In 2006, online display advertising (including banners, skyscrapers and online sponsorships) rose 35% year-on-year to £453.7 million.

• The growth of paid-for search (sponsored listings that advertisers pay for when a consumer clicks through to their site) was sustained, increasing by 52% to £1.2 billion of total online ad spend or a 57.8% share.

• Online classified advertising was also up 45% to £379 million, a share of 18.8%. This is in contrast to traditional press classified advertising, which experienced a significant decrease of 7.8% year-on-year.

Other reads
Online advertising share overtakes newspapers (Guardian)
IAB/PwC UK online adspend figures 2006 (IAB UK Release)
UK Net Advertising Surpasses Print (WebProNews)
Web ad spend overtakes newspapers  (BBC)

Related posts:

1. Online Advertising – The Ad Industry Saviour?
2. Online Advertising Spend Set To Overtake Radio
3. The future of advertising?
4. Recession? Boom Time For Online Advertising
5. The rise of online video ads

Filed under: Digital culture, Trends