Though online growth is still outperforming traditional media, marketers are expected to pull in the reins on online spending this year, leading eMarketer to trim its projections for UK online ad spending in 2009 from £3.93bn to £3.58bn. The slowdown means online advertising is not expected to pass £3.9bn for another year.
Growth this year is expected to be very slight - an increase of just 7% from £3.4bn in 2008, after a solid 21% growth between 2007 and 2008.
Marketers are expected to be less experimental, with paid search and e-mail marketing a priority in measuring accountability and return on investment.
Rudy Tambala, head of the Ministry of Sound's digital media strategy, said: ‘Paid search is where our money will go. People want measurable results.'
Consumers have also been bombarded with emails by brands seeking to connect with them cost-effectively in the economic downturn with money-off promotions and discounted delivery.
Dela Quist, CEO of email marketing agency Alchemy Worx, said: ‘There has been an increase in email volumes due to the combined effects of the credit crunch and Christmas. Email is a cheap way to deliver a message. But the problem for brands will be if they are increasing email volumes without adding value. You need to give people enough value to justify them staying on the distribution lists. Brands need to think of email as a channel in its own right, like TV and everything else.'
Internet users will spend longer online to get the best value for their money. Hitwise said UK internet searches for the terms 'sales' and 'sale' increased by 3.2% between the final week of December 2007 and the last week of December 2008, showing that consumers are looking for better value.
The winners in 2009 will be online retailers with solid ecommerce sites, brand loyalty and effective delivery services. Ecommerce sites are expected to thrive in 2009, said eMarketer, passing £68.4 billion in sales, up from £59.8bn in 2008 as people shop from home.
But online retailers are expected to trial e-mail distribution of promotional coupons for grocery products bought in-store to help drive online shoppers back to stores.
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