Online adspend outlook still strong

Internet advertising remained the fastest-growing advertising medium in 2007 and Key Note predicts it will increase 31.4% in the UK in 2008. 

The Internet Advertising Bureau estimates that internet advertising expenditure was worth £1.7bn in the first half of 2008.

The UK's prevalence of broadband internet use continues to be the main driver of internet advertising, with Key Note reporting that 93% of respondents who access the internet do so from their homes.

The survey was taken from a sample size of 1,001 adults aged 16 and over.

The Key Note survey echoes results recently released by the IAB and the IPA's quarterly Bellwether report.

The IAB study found that online adspend grew by 21% year on year in the first half of 2008 while the Bellwether Report confirmed that online budgets would remain buoyant while companies look to cut marketing costs.

The Key Note report found that more than a quarter of internet users (28%) said that they had clicked on internet ads, and 52% said that they thought rich-media internet ads worked better than those without music or animation.

Despite this implied interest in online advertising, four out of five internet users stated that they had software that blocked internet ads, with the figure reaching 79% in 2008, a growth of six percentage points on 2007.

The report also suggests that opportunities for marketers to engage consumers on social networking sites have been largely "under-exploited".

The report said: "The future will see advertisers gaining a greater understanding of their audiences through monitoring and interaction, but will also see the empowerment of the consumer.

"Consumers will continue to filter not only general content but also advertising content, so that advertisers will have to take care not to cause the consumer any annoyance."