Internet Advertising

For the first half of 2009 (January – June) spending on internet advertising grew a further 4.6% to £1.75 billion which overtook TV ad spending for the first time in history.

In a joint research project, conducted by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, it was identified that whilst the market place for advertising was hit hard by market conditions, with advertising spending reduced by £1.5 billion overall in the same period of time, internet advertising continued to grow.

OK, that’s all well and good, but what does it mean? Well, Internet Advertising as a medium for communications is finally ‘coming of age’. Organisations and their marketing teams are finally beginning to understand the medium, how it can be used effectively and the benefits it can deliver.

Is it fair to compare online ad spend with TV ad spend? They’re two completely different media, with differing levels of reach, interaction and content... but, as a benchmark, it is easy to compare the shift in spend on the two to demonstrate how important online advertising has become.

As a component of the advertising industry, online advertising has matured as a medium and can offer organisations different features and benefits over and above those of the more traditional advertising media such as...

• Online Advertising Networks that bring together those who want to host and those who want to advertise
• Direct response mechanisms to better measure responses and performance
• A variety of online vehicles and display formats
• Improved targeting through semantic analysis

...and all of this is occurring via a platform that is seeing an increasing numbers of internet users with faster broadband connections across the globe.

Now, I’m not saying forget everything else – internet is best – but internet advertising needs to be a considered part of any integrated communications mix. It is different to other media, but is similar in its role and tasks and as such can be used to achieve a variety of tasks (remember DRIP?) and synergise with other communications tools, media and vehicles. However, it should not be used in the same ways as other, more traditional, advertising media... unless you want to confuse, a more synergistic approach is needed.

Take a little time to reflect on your own online advertising, are you using this digital media in the same way you use (or have used) the more traditional media and, if so, is that the most effective approach?