Online Advertising Will Increase in 2009

Via MediaPost's Online Media Daily: According to the latest edition of ZenithOptimedia Group's quarterly tracking study on the advertising economy, "The Internet is the only medium expected to reap advertising increases during 2009." (The study was released yesterday. )

They are predicting that the global ad economy will fall 6.9% during 2009 versus a 0.2% decrease predicted in their last report released in December 2008.

However, online advertising expenditures will rise 8.6% this year--this is down quite a bit from 2008's growth rate of 20.9%, but it continues to be forecast for growth.

The reports states that consumers who are considering purchases are using search more as they seek out the best deals.

In terms of the the specific categories of online advertising and their growth, the report cites:

"In the U.S. we predict search advertising to grow 9.0% in 2009, while classified grows just 1.8% and traditional display shrinks 1.8%. New formats are enjoying greater growth (29.8% from Internet video and rich media, 29.7% from Internet radio and 11.9% from podcasts), but these represent only 12% of US internet expenditure between them."

They also predict that as both consumer and corporate confidence rebound the Internet will once again resume double-digit rates of ad spending growth, and the agency now calls for the online ad economy to expand 11.3% in 2010, and 15.3% in 2011.

Overall, the Internet will become the ad industry's third largest medium this year, surpassing magazines, and coming in just behind TV and newspapers.

~Milissa Rick, VP Online Insights