The agency made the prediction in unveiling its global adspend forecast this week, which showed that internet adspend had increased its share of the global ad market from 3.2% in 2003 to 3.6% in 2004. It is forecasting that this figure will rise to 4.4% by 2007.
The reasons for growth are not just the rising penetration of the internet, but the growing versatility and variety of online content and applications, according to the agency.
ZenithOptimedia reported overall that 2004 had been an exceptional year for advertising spend, with global growth of 6.9%, bringing total global adspend to $370bn (拢190.4bn), well ahead of the global economic growth figure of 4.7%.
Jonathan Barnard, knowledge management manager at ZenithOptimedia, attributed the stronger-than-predicted growth in adspend to the world economy performing better than expected.
"There were risks that a lot of people were worrying about at the beginning of the year, such as the potential overheating of the Chinese economy and security threats, but these haven't dampened the world economy in the way that people feared," he said.
Europe lags behind the rest of the world in terms of advertising growth, with North America seeing growth of 6% for the year, to spend $167.9bn; Latin America growing by 11.7% to $15.9bn; and Africa and the Middle East up by 15.1% to $16bn.
For the Asia-Pacific region, advertising growth in 2004 rose by 8.5% to $75.6bn, with ZenithOptimedia predicting that it will have a bigger advertising market than Europe within 10 years.
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