Traditional Media’s Historical Dominance Threatened By Technology’s Virtual Ads

A new ad spending study by Outsell Inc., an information industry research firm in Burlingame (CA), recently surveyed 1,200 advertisers with a combined advertising budget of $2.4 billion regarding their 2006 spending appetite.

Their findings showed:

·      While print and broadcast companies will take in more ad revenue, they will lose share to the Googles and Yahoos.

·      Online advertising spending is projected to surge 19%, and search engine ad spending 26%.

·      Spending on print ads is projected to grow an estimated 2%, and spending on radio and TV ads 2.4%.

Outsell estimated the Internet is now used by 80% of advertisers, a broader adoption rate than is generally acknowledged, and projected a 90% adoption rate by 2008. (Some of this online advertising, of course, is flowing to traditional media companies. . .often through deals with search engines that place ads on their web sites.)