UK 'king of the world' for online ad spending

The internet is set to take more than one-fifth of all UK advertising revenues by 2009.

The UK has the largest proportion of online advertising worldwide, with 13.5 per cent of ad revenues going to online this year, according to media forecaster ZenithOptimedia.

By 2009, Zenith predicts 21.5 per cent of UK advertising will be on the internet, which would mean Blighty remaining as world champion for online ad spending.

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Jonathan Barnard, head of publications at ZenithOptimedia, told silicon.com the UK has such high online ad expenditure because it is able to piggyback off US marketing successes due to the shared English language.

The strength of the BBC brand and the UK's innovative approach to media marketing has also made the UK a big online ad spender, Barnard added.

Internet advertising is also growing much more quickly than offline ads. Worldwide online advertising is expected to grow over seven times faster than offline advertising in 2007, with internet ad spending up 28.2 per cent compared to a meagre 3.9 per cent growth in other medias, ZenithOptimedia predicts.

Barnard told silicon.com people were initially reluctant to advertise on the internet following the dot-com crash but "this year has been the year when online advertising has taken off as a mainstream media".

This year the forecaster predicts the internet will overtake outdoor advertising too, a year ahead of the company's previous predictions, and by 2009 it will surpass radio ad spend as well.

Barnard said web users can expect more interactive advertising in the future but could not predict what such advertising will look like in five years' time.

The BBC could stand to make up to £105m per year from online ads, according to a recent report commissioned by the corporation.