Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | Pop-ups shot down by surfers but 'relevant' web advertising thrives

Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | Pop-ups shot down by surfers but 'relevant' web advertising thrives: Web surfers infuriated by pop-up advertisements have virtually killed off "interruptive" online marketing by voting with their computer mouse and clicking them away, a new report suggests.
Online advertising spending soared more than 40% to just shy of £1bn in the first half of this year, putting it on track to overtake press advertising by the end of 2006, according to research by the online marketing trade body the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). The figures echo reports that indicate the online sector is shrugging off a tough overall advertising market, which has hit ITV and larger radio stations in recent months.

Within the web advertising world, interruptive formats, including pop-ups, dropped by 9% from a year ago and are now worth only 0.7% of all online advertising spending.

Guy Phillipson, the IAB's chief executive, said advertisers were realising that more tailored campaigns were the way forward and were moving away from formats such as pop-ups that mirrored the old-fashioned interruptive nature of TV and radio advertising.

"The random, scattergun approach is dying out ... but engaging and relevant advertising online is doing well," he said.

Kirsti Wilson, managing director of digital at MediaCom, Britain's largest media buying agency, said pop-ups were a "minute and falling" part of the online advertising world.

"Pop-ups are kind of dead," she said, but she shared the IAB's upbeat tone on an overall market boosted by faster broadband, surging online retail and consumers spending more time on the web.

MediaCom's digital arm, which counts Nokia among its clients, has more than doubled online billing year-on-year. "This year from a new business point of view we've actually taken on probably about another £40m online billing as an agency," Ms Wilson said.

Industry experts predict boom times will continue as more companies, particularly in the consumer goods sector, wake up to the web's reach and versatility.

The IAB's report, written with PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Advertising Research Centre, suggests that online advertising growth is fastest in the so-called search area - sponsored listings that advertisers pay for when a consumer clicks through to their site.

Spending on search advertising jumped 57.7% to £531.3m, giving it a 57.9% share of the online market. Online display advertising, such as banners, was at 23.5% and online classified advertising made up 17.7%.

The growth put Britain's overall online advertising spend at £917m and online's share of the advertising market, at 10.5%, was just behind the national press's portion of 11.4%, the IAB said. "The gap between online and newspaper advertising is narrowing fast," said Mr Phillipson.

Internet is now double the size of outdoor advertising and consumer magazines and three times the size of radio advertising. It still has some way to catch up with television, where market share is at 22.7% but falling.