Market down but UK sees a 17 percent increase in Internet ad spending

A new report that was released recently has shown the a 3.5 percent industry drop overall has been bucked by Internet advertising in the UK, which was the only growing ad medium in 2008 with an increase of 17 percent.

Web based advertising spend over the internet had proved more resilient to the current economic downturn, with a 17.1 percent increase on a like-for-like basis to 3.35 billion pounds ($4.80 billion) as a greater accountability is looked for by advertisers, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).

As an advertising medium the online platform was the only one to show a strong growth according to research carried out by the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

In a statement Guy Phillipson, the chief executive of IAB said “These are really tough times and advertising budgets are being slashed. More than ever, marketers have to demonstrate a clear return on their media investment, and accountability is online’s trump card.”

Online advertising, which in 2002 had been the smallest medium, peaked in the second half of 2008 with 19.8 percent share of all advertising spend and overtook the total press display, which is the combination of all UK magazine and newspaper advertising.

The report also stated that with 1 pound out of every 5 of budgets for media being spent online the growth has made the UK the most advanced market for Internet advertising in the world.

In 2007 online display advertising had increased by 7.7 percent, with an increasing number of marketers becoming attracted to the core embedded formats like video and banner advertising.

By the end of 2008 the British broadcaster ITV said that online video advertising was holding up well, although some pressure on online ads had been seen, with display ads to fill white spaces being the main concern.

With a growth of 22.7 percent the IAB described paid-for search as the “recession-buster” and with many advertiser continuing to leave newspapers for the digital medium the classified advertising area grew by 22.2 percent.