Double digit growth forecasts for online are “too optimistic”

Ibrahimi, speaking at MediaTel Group’s ‘Future of Online’ seminar, said: “We’re expecting between 5% and 8% growth this year – I’ve read many, many reports over the last six months that still maintain double digit growth and I do wonder where on earth they are getting their figures from, because at the sharp end, having built the biggest independent buying point for digital media in the UK, those aren’t the figures that we’re seeing.

However, Ibrahimi added: “The reverse of that, and I suppose, a slightly contrary argument, is that I’ve spent the last 12 years waiting for the Unilevers and P&G’s to get their acts together online and – to put it into context, in 2001 the UK online marketplace was £166m and we’ve grown to £2.2bn-2.3bn this year without their money, so I’m sure that we can live a little bit longer without the P&G’s and Unilevers of this world.”

Also on the panel was Robert Horler, managing director of Diffiniti. He said that over the coming months there will be some heated debates about where advertising spend is going to end up, as “the one thing that’s going to be cheaper next year and the year after is off-line advertising”.

“You need to bear that in mind when trying to persuade clients of the relative merits of online,” he added. “TV advertising will never be cheaper than it will be next year so we’re all going to have to compete against that.”

Media journalist Ray Snoddy praised the panel saying that it was “one of the most honest” he had ever heard debate online. “Mostly, it’s triumphalism,” he said. “Mostly, it’s about the inevitable rise of billions upon billions of advertising revenue.”

MediaTel Group: 0207 439 7575 http://seminars.mediatelgroup.co.uk