For the first time, the biggest-spending advertisers are moving more dollars to online advertising. Business and consumer services, autos, pharmaceuticals, travel/hotels/resorts and insurance and real estate led all industries in positive online ad spending growth on a year-over-year basis. This upward trend was determined by a Nielsen//NetRatings study.
Business and consumer services, which includes large ad spenders such as financial services and telecommunications, led all industry segments with an increase of $100 million from the first quarter of 2002 to the first quarter of 2003. The $100 million represents 58 percent of the $172 million total increase in online ad spending during the same period, as reported by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). The auto sector increased online ad spending by $30 million, from $27 million in Q1 of 2002 to $57 million in Q1 of 2003, an increase of 90.5 percent. Following closely was the drug/remedies category, which increased online ad spending by $26 million during the same year over year period. Rounding out the top five, travel, hotel and resorts reported positive growth of 15.5 percent an increase of $15 million and the insurance and real estate sector moved up 29 percent by $10 million.
"The lion's share of this growth is now coming from industries known to spend significantly on traditional advertising," said Charles Buchwalter, Vice President, Analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings. "From figure one we can see that selected Fortune 500 companies classically labeled as traditional advertisers, like auto manufactures, are more fully adopting online media into their plans."
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Percent Share
Quarter of Online Ads
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Q3-00 3.9%
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Q4-00 3.1%
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Q1-01 3.2%
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Q2-01 3.0%
_______________________________
Q3-01 2.9%
_______________________________
Q4-01 4.5%
_______________________________
Q1-02 4.2%
_______________________________
Q2-02 2.8%
_______________________________
Q3-02 2.7%
_______________________________
Q4-02 4.3%
_______________________________
Q1-03 4.7%
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Figure 1. Major Auto Advertiser Share Growth Q3 00 to Q1 03
(DaimlerChrysler, GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan
Share of Total Online Ads)
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance
"With this data, we're getting more definitive evidence that the industries that spend the most on advertising overall, such as business and consumer services, autos and pharmaceuticals are stepping up their commitment to online," said Buchwalter.
Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance research shows that other large advertisers like consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are increasing their share of online advertising impressions. The CPG companies in this study, Pepsico, Anheuser-Busch, South African Brewers, Altria and Coca Cola have used their traditional advertising savvy on the Web, turning to sports sites, among others to reach online consumers (see Figure 2).
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Percent Share of
Online Ads on
Quarter Sports/Recreation Sites
____________________________________
Q3-00 1.9%
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Q4-00 2.4%
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Q1-01 2.6%
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Q2-01 2.3%
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Q3-01 2.0%
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Q4-01 2.4%
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Q1-02 4.0%
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Q2-02 2.2%
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Q3-02 2.4%
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Q4-02 3.6%
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Q1-03 5.7%
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Figure 2. Leading CPG Advertiser Share Growth
Q3 00 to Q1 03 on Sports/Recreation Sites
(Pepsico, Anheuser-Busch, South African Brewers/Miller,
Altria, Coca Cola Share of Total Online Ads
on Sports/Recreation Sites)
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance
"These industries are among the largest advertising spenders in the world economy, and even a small up-tick in the amount of budget they allocate to online media has an impact that is felt immediately by online publishers," continued Buchwalter.
Nielsen//NetRatings is the global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis and is the industry's premier source for online advertising intelligence.