Of course, online ad spend goes on growing perpetually.
The real story, in new annual figures from the Advertising Association and WARC, is the 6.9 percent rise across all ad forms in the UK in 2010, after a year or two that had seen flat to minus growth through the recession.
“The rise made 2010 the strongest year for adspend growth since the dotcom boom of 2000. It also represented a significant bounce-back from recession,” the research pair says.
But don’t count your chickens. “Growth is expected to dip to 2.9 percent in 2011 … attributed to a relatively weak economy and falling consumer confidence … before rising back to 5.5 percent in 2012” thanks to the Olympics, the researchers say.
“National newspapers increased spend by six percent in 2010, but regional papers and magazines fared less well, dropping 6.4 percent and 5.9 percent respectively.”