Online advertising is set to continue its boom, with revenues reaching £620 million by 2004, according to Fletcher. In 1999 online adspend stood at £50 million, drawn from a mixture of dotcom start-ups and traditional media companies moving to the Net. By 2004, 50% of all online ads will come from dotcoms, says Fletcher.
Dotcom are also currently driving up revenues for every other medium, as new media companies plan strategic awareness-building campaigns across TV, press and outdoor. ITV, for example, has seen its January revenue soar as a result of the influx of demand from these internet brands.
In terms of online advertising, the current winners are publishers and portal sites, according to Fletcher, as they provide the best point of contact between advertisers and users. However, this advantage may not last long, as new technologies are being developed which allow advertisers to target users regardless of where they are on the web. Adwise and iweb are both currently developing these systems and Freeserve is already starting to roll out iweb’s technology across its portal.
Fletcher’s Internet AdWatch survey has also shown that BT and Microsoft were the two largest online advertisers in December 1999.
