Advertising Placements by Industry, January 2008 and January 2009

By Enid Burns , March 31, 2009

A comparison of display ads between January 2008 and January 2009 shows a 31.6 percent decrease in the number of impressions. The data are provided by Nielsen Online. The data are provided by Nielsen Online.

Advertising Breakdown by Industry, January 2008 and January 2009
Industry	Total Impressions, January 2008 (M)	Total Impressions, January 2009 (M)	Year-Over-Year Change* (%)
Automotive	4,279.2	3,295.2	-23
Business-to-business	2,394.6	5,045.2	110.7
Consumer goods	9,076.6	8.096.2	-10.8
Entertainment	4.928.6	6.425.3	30.37
Financial services	75,035.4	31,181.6	-58.44
Hardware and electronics	7,762.8	2,628.0	-66.15
Health	6,774.8	8,812.4	30.08
Public services	7,768.7	6,900.1	-11.18
Retail goods and services	36,116.1	24,956.0	-30.90
Software	4,712.4	3,602.7	-23.55
Telecommunications	15,538.8	20,753.8	33.56
Travel	6,666.3	7,330.5	9.96
Web media	52,417.2	30,559.0	-41.7
Total	233,471.4	159,586.0	-31.65
Source: Nielsen Online, 2009

*This table has been updated. The original version incorrectly calculated the year-over-year percentage change.

Methodology: Nielsen Online AdRelevance's Cloudprober technology tracks online advertising activity across over 2,000 sites and subsites.

Definition of Terms

Standard Image/Text Link: Ads that are comprised of many components, typically both image and text beneath the images, all of which link to the same destination URL.

Standard Image: Animated or static image ads; GIF or JPEG file format-based ads. HTML ads are also classified under this category.

Flash (Generic): Macromedia’s vector-based authoring tool that outputs file formats used to display interactive elements. Requires a plug-in (Flash Player). Generic Flash (Shockwave Formats - .swf) files used for standard Flash banners.

Rich Media: A method of communication that incorporates animation, sound, video, and/or interactivity via a proprietary ad platform. Vendors include Bluestreak, Eyeblaster, Klipmart, PointRoll, and Viewpoint Unicast.

Sponsored Link: Text-based ads that often appear as a result of a keyword search either on a search engine or associated site. These ads are often displayed alongside natural search results but identified under specified headers (e.g., "Paid Sponsor", "Sponsored Link", "Sponsored Sites" or “Sponsored Results”).

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