A new report from Bernstein Research says online advertising in the U.S. will grow by 20% in 2008, despite weakness in travel, auto, and financials.
Top categories for online advertising spend include:
- Finance, insurance, real estate – 29.6% of overall spend
- Media and entertainment – 25.2%
- Retail – 13.8%
- Other – 12.9%
- Auto – 8.6%
Despite big cuts in auto marketing in broadcast and print, online ads for automakers were actually up 3.8% in the first quarter. (see my blog post about auto advertising online, and why it works)
According to Bernstein’s forecast, even a significant worsening in overall economic conditions wouldn’t deter Internet advertising growth much. In a full-blown recession scenario, they predict online ads would still grow by 17%. (See my blog post on “Why Digital Marketing Will Thrive in a Recession” for more on this topic).
The Question for Agencies…
This research begs an obvious question for agencies? Are there other elements of your business that are likely to grow by 20% this year? If not, is it time to ramp up your digital capabilities?
Any agency readers of Convince & Convert care to comment about their digital progress in 2008?
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[...] marketing is going to grow. That’s unquestioned (see blog post about growth rate). But the smart digital agencies aren’t satisfied with consuming that piece of the marketing [...]