Brand Advertisers To Rev Up Web Spending

Publishers anticipate that traditional brand marketers will substantially increase their Web advertising this year, according to a new study by AOL's Advertising.com unit.

"While Web-based direct-response advertisers are expected to represent the majority of online revenue, publishers are predicting increased spending from traditional, brand-focused advertisers," stated the report, "2006 Interactive Publisher Survey." The study was based on a January survey of online publishers in Advertising.com's network.

The respondents predicted that about 32 percent of revenue this year would come from offline companies--up from 26.5 percent last year and 22 percent in 2004. Spending is expected to increase across a variety of categories, including retail, consumer packaged goods, entertainment, and automotive.

Advertising.com also reported that more publishers this year will support contextual links, rich media, and streaming video than in the past. Sixty-seven percent of respondents say they support contextual links--up from around 50 percent last year--while more than 76 percent of publishers support rich media, up from 69 percent last year.

More than one in three publishers--35 percent--now supports video, compared to 25 percent last year. But, at the same time, more than 43 percent of publishers have streaming content--which has led Advertising.com to conclude that some publishers aren't yet monetizing their streaming content with ads.

Of the publishers that support video ads, almost all--86 percent--run in-banner video. The majority of publishers also supported pre-roll and post-roll ads, while about half supported interstitials.

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