UK online ad spend jumps 21% despite downturn

Tue Oct 7 2008, 10:24 AM

The online ad market grew 21% year-on-year, attracting spending of GBP1.68bn for the six-month period from January to June, according to latest figures published by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). The rise came as all other mediums - TV, radio, print and outdoor - suffered from declining ad spend.

Online's share of the total UK ad market rose four points above expectations, coming in at 18.7%, narrowly behind print's 19.3% share and TV's 21.7%.

Total UK ad-spend for the six-month period came in at GBP8.983bn, a 0.7% fall from the same time in 2007. Without the boost in online spend, the total ad market would have slumped some 4.6%.

"Online is not immune from the economic downturn but while other sectors see falls in expenditure the internet is still experiencing an incredible increase and is propping up the entire advertisment market," says IAB UK's CEO Guy Phillipson. "The growth in internet advertising spend is beating all expectations as advertisers look to maximise their budgets and take advantage of new display advertising formats such as video."

Within the online ad sector, paid search brought in the most revenue and accounted for 58.3% of online ad spend, generating GBP981m. Display advertising, including embedded formats such as banners, rich media and video ads, raised GBP333.8m.