Established Net brands beat big-budget sites

Established Internet brands have a higher degree of consumer awareness than new brands with much larger advertising budgets, according to research conducted by CIA MediaLab.

The research found that Yahoo!, the Internet search-engine established in 1994, has the highest prompted awareness with 39 per cent. However, it spent just &£700,000 on advertising last year.

Yet despite having a media spend of &£2.5m, the online auction site QXL.com brand has just five per cent awareness.

Amazon.co.uk, which spent &£2.6m last year, has a 28 per cent awareness, beating rival BOL.com which has just a nine per cent awareness despite a higher advertising spend.

CIA MediaLab, a media research division of CIA Medianetwork, interviewed 500 adults in a national survey of Internet brands.

CIA Medianetwork head of planning David Fletcher says: “It is not just a case of spending the money to launch a site, money must continuously be invested in marketing to fight off competition.”

Boo.com, the sportswear Website, has spent &£1.6m on advertising since its launch last November, but has an awareness of eight per cent.

Lastminute.com, the online late booking service, achieved seven per cent awareness, with an ad spend of only &£600,000.