Online advertising up 40% in Europe

Online advertising in Europe grew by 40% year-on-year in 2007, according to a report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe (IABE). The market value has increased to €11.2bn (£8.8bn) last year up from €7.2bn (£5.7bn) in 2006.

The market is closing in on the US market, which grew by 26% last year to €14.5bn (£11.4bn). The report, which the IAB produced with PricewaterhouseCoopers, covers the full membership of the IAB Europe in 2007 including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the UK.

The UK, Germany and France account for 63% of European ad budgets although some of the smaller markets have reported high growth with Greece seeing a 91% increase, the Spanish increase by 55% and Slovenia’s market almost doubled.

The report also covers the share that online advertising has of the total advertising spend in key markets.

Alain Heureux, President of IAB Europe says “We are well on the way to achieving the “10 before 10” – that is 10 European countries where online advertising accounts for at least 10% of overall ad spend by the year 2010. At the end of 2007 Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Poland Sweden and the UK had all reached this milestone.”

The report, which included category data for the first time, shows that in 2007 entertainment and leisure, telecoms, financial services and insurance brands were the highest spenders in 2007.