Internet Advertising Now Bigger Than TV In The UK

The actual economical downturn has deeply affected marketing department and strategies. By cutting budgets marketers needed to find out new ways to advertise at a lower cost, optimizing their return on investment. Hence, traditionnal mass media communication channel like TV has been impacted by this crisis.

Spending on internet advertising in Britain grew 4.6 percent in the first half of 2009, outperforming the wider ad sector, which slumped 17 percent, and making it the country's biggest ad medium ahead of TV.

According to the report, the internet accounted for 23.5 percent of all spend, compared with 18.7 percent in the first half of 2008. Television accounted for 21.9 percent, press display for 18.5 percent and direct mail for 11.5 percent.

The IAB report said the internet had avoided the advertising slump in general media, due to the strong demand for paid-for search on sites such as Google and resilience shown by classified online ads.

The study abreaks down the online display market by industry category, with technology the biggest spender, accounting for 19.1% of the market, followed by telecoms (13.3% rising from 9.7% the previous year) and finance (13.2% up from 11.9%).