For the first time ever in the U.K., share of advertising sales was greater among online sites than newspapers.
According to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), television ad dollars were down last year while newspapers were flat. Online dollars for ads were up 41 percent over the year before and now represent 11.4 percent of total ad dollars. As a point of comparison, newspapers represented 10.9 percent of ad dollars.
Online as a percentage of ad spending continues to run higher in the U.K. than in the U.S. The percentage of total ad dollars dedicated to online are estimated to be roughly seven percent here. Globally, the average is below six percent.
"Advertisers are continuing to switch more of their budgets online to build their brands and interact with their customers," Guy Phillipson, chief executive of IAB, told The Guardian. "With consumers now enjoying even faster broadband and installing wireless routers in their homes, the growth of online advertising in the UK is set to continue unabated."
The growth of broadband, opening up the use of video has played a substantial roll in helping to move ad dollars online. That combined with the rise of social networking and consumer-produced content has an increasing number of people in the U.K. spending longer periods of time online. Even the lowly banner ad has been "reinvigorated," according to the IAB through the use of video and animation.
Still, U.K. experts say search advertising is the king when it comes to actual dollars spent online. Spending in this area now represents nearly 58 percent of total online ad dollars.
On the other hand, pop-ups have been hit hard (one would assume because they remain annoying) with less than one percent of online ad dollars going to this tactic.
Discussion Questions: Do you see online overtaking newspapers and perhaps other forms of advertising in the U.S., such as magazines and television? What do the changes taking place in advertising mean for retailers and other consumer marketers?