Online advertising will continue to grow in the UK, indicates a study

Online advertising is picking up significantly in the UK. In fact, it leads Europe in terms of total online advertising spend, rising by over 30 per cent in 2007, and is expected to rise by another 27 per cent in 2008. Moreover, the spending on the online advertising industry is expected to continue to show double-digit growth year-on-year basis (Y-o-Y) through 2010 in the UK, and might touch the £5 billion ($8.7 billion) mark in 2012.

Karin von Abrams, senior analyst of eMarketer & author of the new report, entitled ‘UK Online Advertising: Reaching Maturity’, stated global financial turbulence is putting the brakes somewhat on ad spending to some extent. However, online advertising will gain strength in the UK, and may even consolidate gains over other media during the economic pinch. He also added it may be 2010 before television loses its top slot in the UK advertising market, if eMarketer’s online spending projections prove to be accurate.

According to GroupM, the Internet accounted for £2.3 billion in 2007, or 18.3 per cent of total advertising spending. Since expenditure on television advertising might actually fall, GroupM thinks that spending on online advertising in the UK will overtake spending on TV ads as early as 2009.