UK Online Ad Spend Soared Nearly 50 Percent in '04

Online advertising spend in the UK increased 46.4 percent in 2004, reaching $1.12 billion, according to figures compiled by the World Advertising Research Center (WARC).

This growth nearly pushed online ahead of radio advertising, which ranks as the country's fifth largest advertising medium. Ad spend on radio in the UK increased 3.4 percent in 2004, totaling $1.14 billion.

Total ad spend figures in the UK increased 5.4 percent to $34.7 billion in 2004. That growth represents the largest year-over-year increase in the UK in four years. The leading medium was print with 47.8 percent of the across-the-board total, followed by television (25.8 percent); direct mail (13.4 percent); outdoor (5.4 percent); radio (3.3 percent); online (3.2 percent); and cinema (1.0 percent).

The online ad spend figures were based on a WARC estimate of full-year IAB UK figures and data from the center's survey of online recruitment ad expenditures.

UK advertising statistics for 2004 will be published in full in the Advertising Association's Advertising Statistics Yearbook 2005 in June.

Overall, online advertising in Europe increased 30 percent in 2004, totaling $2.8 billion, according to figures released by JupiterResearch in a recent report.

Looking forward, JupiterResearch predicts that online advertising in Europe will increase an additional 28 percent in 2005, reaching $3.7 billion.