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Last Updated: Dec 19th, 2007 - 13:17:15 |
Online advertising in UK, the Netherlands and Denmark exceeds 10% of total annual advertising spend but lags at 3.5% in Ireland
By Finfacts Team
Jun 4, 2007, 17:34
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| Alain Heureux, President of IAB Europe |
IAB Europe, a federation of national web advertising groups, has used the platform of its “Interact” congress on digital marketing in Brussels today, Monday, 4 June, to announce the results of the first ever pan European online advertising spend study.
Featuring data from 13 countries in the IAB Europe network, the study shows that in 2006, online advertising spend within the IAB Europe network was €8.003 billion (€8,002.6 million). The study covers spend on display, classified and directories, search and email advertising.
The data has been compiled by IAB Europe based on information provided by the regional IAB offices around Europe and then analysed and processed by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Today's report says that UK internet users are the most valuable in Europe to advertisers, attracting even more per capita advertising expenditure than online consumers in the US, home of the web.
Advertisers spent an average €82.46 (£56) marketing to each active UK web user in 2006. The sum is more than twice the €39 spent marketing to each web surfer across the 13 European countries measured by the study. The comparable US figure was about €60 last year.
The IAB/PwC study estimates that in a total of three European countries, the web’s share of advertising expenditure exceeded 10% in 2006. These were the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark. Ireland's share was about 3.5%.
Also today, the comScore World Metrix study reveals that the country has the highest average number of daily visitors (21.8 million), the highest usage days per month (21 per user), and the highest average time spent per month per user (34.4 hours).
The study shows, on an average day in April 2007, there were 122 million Europeans aged 15 or older online, versus 114 million in the U.S.
The average European accessed the Internet from either a home or a work computer an average of 16.5 days in the month and spent a total of 24 hours viewing 2,662 Web pages.
In comparison with our European neighbours, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries have the highest percentage of their populations using the Internet, ranging from 68 percent to 83 percent.
Germany has the largest online population: 32.6 million people age 15 and older.
Countries that have usage days below the European average are Russia (11.4 average usage days), Austria (12.0), Italy (12.9), Ireland (13.0), Portugal (13.4), Norway (14.7), Denmark (14.7), Switzerland (15.1), Belgium (15.5) and Finland (16.4).
The average Swedish user views 4,019 pages per month and views more pages than any other country. This is 51 per cent above the European average of 2,662 pages per month.
Managing Director of comScore Europe, Bob Ivins, said: “This marks the first time we have released this detailed of a portrait of Internet usage across the 16 countries, making these comparisons truly revealing."
The study also revealed that Google is the most popular property in 13 of the 16 countries, followed by Microsoft in most countries.
Yahoo! remains the third most popular property across Europe, despite making the top 3 list in only three countries – Ireland, Italy and Spain.
The comScore study compares activity across the 16 countries where comScore tracks Internet usage with panel-based measurement and highlights the differences in Internet development by country.
Country advertising spend breakdown
The UK accounted for the largest share of European online adspend, at 39% of the total (€3.101 billion), Germany accounting for 22% (€1.752 billion) and France 15% (€1,179 billion). The Netherlands is Europe’s fourth largest market at 7% (€564.3 million), closely followed by Italy at 6% (€480.2 million). Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Finland, Greece, Slovenia and Croatia account for the remaining 12% (€927 million).
Annual figures released by the Advertising Association last month show that the United Kingdom's total advertising expenditure in 2006 was more than £19 billion (€27.75).
In the UK, the internet enjoyed the biggest spending upturn between 2005 and 2006 at 47.5 per cent year-on-year to £2.01 billion.
The internet accounted for more than 10% of the UK annual advertising spend for the first time.
Print media, which includes all magazines and newspapers, drew the highest advertising spend of 2006 at £8.34 billion - despite a 2.7% year-on-year drop.
TV advertising spend dropped 4.7% year-on-year to £4.59 billion. This was the first dip in television advertising expenditure since 2001, according to the Advertising Association.
The amount spent on direct mail advertising dropped 2.1% to £2.32 billion, while radio fell 7.7% to £534 million.
Figures from the Irish advertising body, the IAPI show that advertisers spent €13.5 million online across 90 Irish websites last year, excluding Google, MSN, YouTube and other international websites and networks. Search engine marketing, meanwhile, is estimated to be worth €30 million a year in Ireland, according to Amarach Consulting.
Total Irish advertising expenditure was €1.3 billion in 2006.
Format breakdown
31% of online advertising spend in 2006 was on all forms of display advertising, 45% was on search advertising, with 22% on classifieds and directories, and 1.6% on email marketing.
About the study
Having compiled figures from each of the National IAB online advertising spend benchmark studies in spring 2006, this year IAB Europe has gone one stage further in providing accurate and comparable data on the European market. They have taken into account the various methodologies used by the National IABs across Europe to compile their reports and then made the necessary adjustments to the figures to ensure that they are correctly comparable, country by country.
Comment
Alain Heureux, President of IAB Europe, said: ‘‘These figures demonstrate without any doubt the significance of the European online advertising industry. The Interact Congress, the first of its kind, is the perfect platform for the presentation of this sector’s growing success and delegates will go away from here with the tools, knowhow and inspiration to grow the
sector still further.”
Nicki Lynas, Manager (Entertainment and Media, PricewaterhouseCoopers) said: "PwC are excited to be working with the IAB Europe on this advertising study. The total investment of Euro 8 billion demonstrates the rising importance of the internet as an advertising medium in Europe, and we look forward to seeing how much larger the market will be in 2007."
The Interact Congress is supported by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) as official partner. "Interactive Media is radically changing the way in which we market on a local, European and global basis. The Ad Ex project will be a valuable contribution to increasing our understanding of how the online medium is growing. The Interact event provides a unique platform where marketers can come together, grow their knowledge and share experience and we are delighted to be an official partner at Interact to support the European interactive business", said Alison Fennah, Executive Director of the EIAA.
How were the figures reached?
Each national IAB runs its own annual online advertising spend benchmark study and the IAB Europe Ad Ex figure is based on these results. As the methodology for the studies varies country by country, the nature of this project is to represent the figures in such a way as to make them realistically comparable.
This involves:
· Re adjusting figures to allow for different original methodologies
Re adjustment rates have been supplied by groups of local market experts
· Estimating data for certain formats in certain countries where local IAB studies do not include data on a given format, weighted averages for similar markets have been applied to give an estimated value for the format
· IAB Europe is not re valuing the markets in these countries, but simply making the adjustments necessary to make the figures comparable
What has been estimated?
Of the total value given for these markets, 66% of the value is accounted for by actual data. Of the remaining data 21% has been adjusted to make it comparable, and 14% has been estimated. The adjustments and estimations are based on input from local markets or ratios based on weighted averages from other countries
Other information about the figures:
· Figures quoted are gross figures (i.e. actual invoiced value of the media sold, including agency commission)
· All estimates and readjustments are conservative
· All estimates and readjustments have been subject to approval from local market experts and industry analysts
· We are confident that our figures are correct based on the IAB Europe network’s knowledge of the market
IAB Europe
IAB Europe is a federation of 13 national IAB (Internet Advertising Bureaux) associations and think tanks representing more than 2,000 companies and over 30,000 individual members. It was set up in 1997 to help marketers make the most of the new digital media at their disposal. Along with its sister organisations in North and South America, Asia and the Far East, the IAB coordinates research, defines best practice and acts as the main political body, lobbying on behalf of interactive marketers.
