• by March 7, 2001

In a recent article in InternetNews, Christopher Saunders reviewed a new study study by Jupiter Media Metrix's AdRelevance unit that shows that advertising online is still dominated by small and mid-sized dot-coms.

Large companies (quarterly sales of $500 million or more) increased their weekly online ad impressions by 17% during the fourth quarter of 2000, to 37 million, and purchased an average of 135 million impressions during the quarter. However, the smallest dot-coms (those with Q sales of $75 million or less) bought 176 million impressions in the same time period. Also, during the 4th quarter, dot-coms bought an average of 453 million impressions, while traditional companies bought 117 million.

Much of the findings are understandable the report says, since dot-coms by their nature often focus on computer, Internet, or technology-based products and services. Or, their customers are Internet users, so Web advertising is a good way to reach them.

But while the growth in overall impressions and spend breadth by traditional advertisers are favorable, the study suggests that traditional clients are taking their time to transition part of their marketing budgets online. "Market-weary sites have been hoping for the larger, big budget advertisers to jump into the deep-end of the online advertising pool, but the latest AdRelevance data indicate only a gradual increase in online advertising from large companies," Charlie Buchwalter, vice president of media research at AdRelevance, said.

Read the whole story here.