Internet adspend continues to beat the market with 51.5% rise

by Jennifer Whitehead, Brand Republic 21-Jun-05

LONDON - Internet adspend has once again outstripped the rest of the market, showing a rise of 51.5%, compared with a 5.3% rise in adspend across all media to £3.99bn.

Internet advertising accounted for £210m during the first quarter of the year, a rise of 48.9% in real terms compared with the same period last year, according to figures published by the Advertising Association in conjunction with the World Advertising Research Center this week.

This figure puts it well ahead of radio, and nipping at the heels of cinema adspend, which stood at £213m for the quarter.

It showed that spend on television advertising was up by 13.6% in current prices, a rise of 11.7% in real terms. Hits from the first three months include Channel 4's 'Celebrity Big Brother', won by Bez from the Happy Mondays, and US import 'Desperate Housewives'.

Other sectors to perform well were cinema, up 18.8% with the release of hits such as 'Sideways' and 'Meet the Fockers', and outdoor, up 14%.

One surprise fall was for spend on direct mail, which includes mailouts but not doordrops nor other forms of direct marketing, which saw an 8.8% decline in real terms.

A decline was also seen in business magazines, which showed a 2.7% decline, measured as 4.3% in real terms.

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