Credit crunch vs. the numbers, numbers, numbers.

Credit Crunch vs, the numbers

Having just taken the physical, if not mental stress out of shopping for the business recently (the mental remained as most of the sites I used were not that easy to get around, and one had a particularly annoying way of ‘predicting’ my address – incorrectly, several times), credit crunch defying statistics for on-line growth amaze. We continue to spend with a raging thirst on-line; Internet advertising spend up an un-paralleled 38% in 2007, and marketing spend in the UK a staggering £1.7 billion during first half of 2008! (the total advertising market would have actually fallen 4.6% without factoring in on-line spend. Source: IAB).Why is the Web not suffering the obvious effects of downturn of TV, press, outdoor and radio?

Paid search continues grew by 28% year-on-year (worth £981 million in the first half of this year, market share now 58.3% of total online advertising), and a 36.6% increase in the spend with 'embedded' formats - banners, rich media, and video.
Sector-wise, Technology was highest (17.3% of market share), Finance (11.9%), Entertainment & Media (10.7%) and last – but hey, not least - our very own, Recruitment at 9.9%.

Whilst confessing to enjoying a curry over ‘Corrie Catch Up’, ‘looking at on-line services such as BBC iPlayer, and Channel 4's 4oD, 27% of 15-24 year olds say that they use the Internet for 'watching TV programmes' (17% up), 45% used it for 'watching video clips/web casts', (+18%).

Much used ‘Social Media’ (Death of the Pub imminent?), continues to have a massive impact overall on the market, especially as an ‘audience driver’, although Ad spend is still comparatively low, yet set to grow steadily as these platforms become part of every day life (like it or not), with the demographic changing - women aged between 25-34 spending more time online than men, together with more over-50s logging on (I know of a couple of Octogenarians who dabble online, bingo included!).