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Spending on online advertising is expected to represent 18% of all UK advertising spending in 2007 — more than double the percentage in the US or in any other European country. That’s according to new research from eMarketer.
The study, UK Online Advertising - press release here - predicts solid growth for the internet advertising industry over the next four years:
In fact, Britain is set to account for just over half of all online ad spending in Western Europe this year.That share will rise to 52.6% of regional online spending by 2010, and amount to £4.11 billion ($7.77 billion). Steady economic growth and further advances in broadband will help fuel this growth. Just as important will be developments in paid search, rich media and advertising on social networks. Together, all these factors will drive UK online ad spending to a total of £4.45 billion ($8.24 billion) in 2011.

However, attitudes towards advertising may change its nature. There is still considerable resistance to some forms of online advertising. One 2006 study by TNS commissioned by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) found that 31% of UK consumers considered advertising of any kind intrusive, against 15% who did not. In order to make internet adverts more acceptable, a number of possible improvements were suggested by researchers from Ipsos Insight (see table).

Interestingly, it does not appear that UK consumers are particularly hungry for better adverts. Only 23% said that they wanted more innovative ads, though 37% thought internet advertising might be more acceptable to them if the adverts were funnier or more entertaining. The reports authors conclude that this lack of desire points towards an industry that is already mature and well-developed. By far the largest request, though, is for advertising that is relevant to the consumer’s immediate needs, with 64% requesting that adverts around editorial matter be more relevant to what they are reading at the time. This very large preference for contextual ads would seem to point towards a brighter future for search-related, contextual advertising than for traditional brand adverts.
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