A new report by global media buying network ZenithOptimedia predicts that the internet will almost double its current share of global ad spend by 2010, becoming the world’s third largest advertising medium in the process.
In all, web advertising will pass three major milestones in the next three years: it will overtake radio advertising in 2008, attain a double-digit share of global advertising in 2009, and overtake magazines in 2010 to reach third spot in the global media league. The internet’s astonishing rate of expansion over this period is expected to come at the expense of most other media.
Western Europe is a major driver of this continuing growth, with the region’s online budget soaring from $10 billion this year to nearly $20 billion by 2010. ZenithOptimedia predicts that 2008’s online ad spend will be up 27.6% on last year, reaching nearly $13 billion.
“Even then there will remain plenty of scope for further growth,” says Jonathan Barnard, head of publications at ZenithOptimedia. “Internet advertising already takes over 15% of ad spend in four markets (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK). By 2010, we forecast the internet to take more than 20% in the same four markets and more than 15% in ten markets.”
ZenithOptimedia’s forecast is echoed in the predictions of another global media giant: WPP’s Group M has identified the internet (along with television) as the primary engine of global ad growth, accounting for 30% of new investment in 2008. The ‘This Year, Next Year’ report’s author, Adam Smith, predicts another first for the internet in 2008, with the internet becoming the largest single medium by ad revenue in Sweden.
