The internet has once again proved its resilience as ad spend on the medium increased by 4.6% in the first half of 2009 overtaking television spend for the first time, according to a new report from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
TV, the once preferred medium of advertising, has suffered declines of 16.1% in the first half paving the way for the internet to become the UK’s biggest advertising medium.
According to the biannual report from the IAB, ad spend on the internet grew to £1.75 billion, with the medium accounting for almost a quarter (23.5%) of all spend.
The IAB said the internet had avoided a slump due to the strong demand for paid-for search on sites such as Google. Paid-for search grew 6.8% from the first half of 2008 to 2009, with marketers investing £1.05 billion, equating to 60% of all online advertising expenditure.
TV accounted for 21.9% of advertising spend while press accounted for 18.5% and direct mail for 11.5%.
The shake-up in market share also followed a 20% fall in press display, outdoor advertising and directories.
While spend on press classifieds fell 37%, online classified advertising grew by 10.6% to £385 million as online display ads fell 5.2%.
Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the IAB, told Reuters that the jump ahead of TV as the leading medium had come earlier than he expected and that the growth boded well for the rest of the year.
He believes there will be some growth in 2010 for online advertising, and double digit percentage growth by 2011.
Phillipson said, "This is a significant milestone. This is the first major market where online has overtaken television to become the biggest single medium."
Online growth had slowed considerably compared with the 21% reported for the first half of 2008, but it still fared far better than TV, print and radio.
Just last week, internet advertising was predicted to account for about 15% of global measured advertising spending in 2010, up from an anticipated 13% in 2009, according to GroupM.
The figure represents an estimated £39.8 billion globally, an 11% increase over the previous year’s total. The hike is being sparked by ad spending increases in both search and mobile and a continuing ad spending decline in traditional media.
Eva Berg-Winters of PWC, said, "Perhaps surprisingly, a slowing economy has accelerated the migration to digital technology. Hence the continuing shift from more traditional forms of advertising to online, which promises return on investment and measurability in a period of instability."
Britain remains the world leader in terms of market share for online advertising, due to the use of online networks to place advertising, the availability of fast and cheap broadband and the popularity of new formats such as video adverts.