LONDON (Brand Republic) - UK online adspend overtook cinema advertising for the first time last year, according to figures compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the Internet Advertising Bureau.
The figures show that, despite a slowdown in growth in the run-up to Christmas, online advertising for the year stood at £154.7m. This compares with £51m in 1999 and £128m spent in cinemas during 2000, according to estimates by the Cinema Advertising Association.
In the fourth quarter, online advertisers spent £49.4m, up from the £41.9m in the previous three months.
Paul Pilkington, senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said, 鈥淚n spite of a difficult year for the advertising sector as a whole, UK internet advertising has continued to grow steadily. These figures confirm that internet advertising has maintained quarter-on-quarter growth throughout 2000 -- something which no other UK advertising medium achieved, even traditional classified advertising and direct mail.鈥
Separate figures from Forrester Research also showed 30%-40% year-on-year growth in UK online advertising for January and February.
www.iabuk.net