Internet advertising experienced the strongest gain in the second quarter of 2007 and now accounts for an estimated 6% of all marketing spend; one in five companies now allocates at least 10% of its total marketing spend to the internet.
Spend on direct marketing was also predicted to increase, with companies planning the biggest upward revision for a year.
However, the quarterly Bellwether contrasts with a July report from WPP's GroupM, which claimed that the industry is relying on the internet for most of its growth and that traditional media will underperform the economy in the long term.
GroupM warned that TV ad expenditure will experience zero growth in 2007 and 2008, partly because of TV's weakening reach among the under-35s.
It added that advertising within national and regional newspapers will be down 2.1% and 3.3% year on year respectively.
The GroupM report revealed 'measured' internet revenue growth is showing signs of slowing, pointing to the fact that the market is almost saturated; the growth of social networking, where it is harder to advertise, is also having an impact.
The Bellwether Report was generally optimistic in its forecasts, with predictions that business confidence will increase based on evidence that 24% of companies are reporting a lift in marketing spend against 15% recording a decrease. The report noted that budget trimming had been most widely reported in the industrial and utilities sectors.
- Leader, page 25.
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