Web Marketing Jumps . . .
Stock Asylum Staff Report
June 9, 2006
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers have reported that internet advertising increased again during the first quarter of 2006, adding to a continuous three-and-a-half-year trend that could be good for high-end stock photography and other expensive creative services.
Total internet ad revenue reached $3.9 billion during the first quarter of this year, a 38 percent increase over the same period in 2005 and a six percent increase over the final quarter of last year, the IAB said.
"It is abundantly clear that marketers are seeing a compelling opportunity to leverage the internet as a powerful medium that drives both branding and sales results," said Peter Petrusky, director of advisory services at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The regularly-compiled survey uses data compiled from web sites, commercial online services, free e-mail providers and other companies that sell web ads. IAB says it represents over 250 companies that sell about 86 percent of online advertising in the United States.
The consistent upward trend could make advertisers more willing to open their pocketbooks for quality photography, illustration and general creative services. To date, many advertisers have refrained from spending much money on their web ads, possibly because no one knew if the internet could effectively attract new customers.
As a result, some low-priced stock photo services have done well while the stock industry as a whole stagnated –– producing no more than $2 billion a year in total revenue each of the last ten years, according to some estimates.
However, as the web becomes more popular with advertisers, they may spend more just to make sure their ads get noticed among the clutter. This could make strong imagery a worthwhile investment for many companies.
"My guess would be that, as the medium becomes more important, marketers will put more money into the quality of their online advertising," said Greg Stuart, CEO of the IAB. "Now that they are spending more money on the medium, production becomes a smaller percentage of the overall costs."
According to the IAB, internet advertising grew steadily for several years until the turn of the century when quarterly revenue stalled at about $2 billion.
After the internet bubble burst and the United States was shaken by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, web advertising dropped below $1.5 billion per quarter before it started rising again in 2002.
Web advertising revenue has steadily increased ever since. During the first quarter of 2005, advertisers spent $2.8 billion on the internet. By the fourth quarter of 2005, that figure had jumped to $3.6 billion.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau can be found at: http://www.iab.net.
