• by Masha Geller , August 24, 2001

Judging by the number of autoresponders in my inbox from the last few days, the ad industry (myself included) is going to be on vacation next week. The last week of August is always the lowest point of the summer doldrums for us advertisers, so I've prepared a few laughs for those of you left in the office next week. But before I take off, I wanted to bring you a tiny piece of good news.

As you know, when it comes to ad spending forecasts, I'm a jaded skeptic. Generally, I don't think anyone should take them seriously and instead focus on the present, not the future. But I have to give credit where credit is due - forecasters do lift our spirits once in a while.

For example, the latest "Online Advertising Report" from eMarketer says that spending in interactive media is stable and will continue to grow steadily in the next several years. Based on data from more than 50 research organizations and consultancies, eMarketer calculates that online ad spending will reach $7.6 billion by year-end 2001, a relatively modest 7% increase from the $7.1 billion spent in 2000. Despite the recent economic downturn, online ad expenditures will continue to grow; increasing to $10.3 billion in 2002 and by 2005 will top $23 billion.

While eMarketer acknowledged that ad spending projections for 2001 spending vary from $4.7 billion to $12.6 billion, depending on the study and methodologies employed, eMarketer's $7.6 billion reflects the 'best fit' with all of the available data.

And if nothing else, the number does seem reasonable.

Additionally, eMarketer points our that Cost-per-thousand (CPM) rates for banner ads continue to decline and that nearly 75% of web advertising space goes unsold. Also, while more than 99.7% of banner ads are not clicked on, research suggests that bigger banners are improving branding and direct response metrics.

Moreover, the online medium garners 10% of consumers' daily media usage, but only 2.9% of media dollars. Let's spend the next few months changing that, shall we?

See you in September!