…OR Why Online Advertising Spends Worldwide have been the least affected

The slump in the economy has slowed things down, and marketing spends have been rationalized. This has resulted in spend cuts across the media, some corporations have even halved their spendings. The winner in this crisis has been online advertising. By virtue of its design (accountable, measurable, dynamic, interactive, real-time), Online advertising has been a hit with advertisers and its not surprising to see this medium surpass the others. As a matter of fact, while the other mediums have seen a decline in the spends during these times, overall, online advertising spends have been positive.

According to Rick Beslin of Drive Thru Interactive, “…we’re seeing businesses (both big and small) trimming their advertising spend with traditional media (especially newspapers and magazines), while keeping or increasing their online advertising/marketing spend. Why? Online marketing is entirely measurable (and typically produces quicker ROI), and you don’t have to lock-in to huge advertising contracts with old-school publishers.”

“…money (from traditional advertising) is shifting to tried & true online advertising avenues like search, since they’ve figured it out over the past 5 years or so (PPC, that is). ”

In UK for instance, the resilience of internet ad spend in the downturn turned what would have been a 4.6% year-on-year decline in advertising spend in the first half to a slide of just 0.7%, according to the study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. [1]

Another study by ZenithOptimedia predicts 9.4 %  of about $44.5 billion of global advertising spend to be spent online in 2008.