Online Advertising Still Growing

Online advertising is growing and so are online audiences, according to the ‘H1 2009 UK Online Ad Spend Study’ commissioned by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC).


So what you may cry, after all the IAB / PWC online ad spend report has been running since 1997 and growth is commonplace in all findings. Well, the really big news is that online ad spend has actually overtaken TV ad spend to become the largest advertising medium used in the UK! What’s more, online advertising has actually dramatically risen from the smallest advertising medium to the largest in just six years. It’s incredible really, especially when you consider that 27% of the UK population are still not online. Furthermore, of those online only half are on broadband. It seems there is room for further growth in a few more reports yet.

There is also room for growth in actual online usage, currently it is just the second most popular medium after TV. People spend more time online than they do reading newspapers or magazines, or listening to the radio but less time than watching the box. However, if broadband services improve and if video content continues to grow and improve, this TV audience share may well also come under threat from the ever encroaching march of the net.

Here at TDP we think these results are well deserved by the online industry. After all online advertising really does deliver something over and above traditional broadcast and print media. It delivers targeted audiences and excellent measurability. We are proud of our ability to deliver highly targeted audiences from across our B2B ad network for business advertisers in all industries.

The survey also revealed that Technology, Telecoms and Finance are the three UK industry sectors spending the most online. Whilst we appreciate that a portion of this will reflect consumer focussed campaigns, it does show that B2B online advertising is a great place to be within the digital world.