• by Masha Geller , December 11, 2001

Based on many research studies of U.S. online ads in recent history, banners rule the U.S. digital advertising landscape. Apparently, that's not the case with some of our European marketing and advertising counterparts. According to DoubleClick's latest European Digital Marketing Study, European marketers use email more than banners.

Data from this study, conducted by Ecom Interaction and Benchmark research, shows that 31% of European marketers participate in email marketing, whereas 27% are engaging in targeted banner advertising. In the UK 58% of marketers use email marketing and 50% participate in targeted banner advertising. Spain is a close second with 54% of marketers engaging in email marketing and 37% engaging in targeted banner advertising. According to the study, France is the only country citing higher usage of targeted banner advertising (10%) vs. email marketing (9%).

Overall, the study also reveals, nearly half of European marketers (46%) are engaging in online marketing as part of their marketing strategy. Marketers in the United Kingdom and Spain are ahead of the pack with 73% and 66%, respectively, engaging in online marketing.

An encouraging finding was that 33% of European marketers plan to spend 15% or more of their total budget on online marketing this year. Comparatively, only 22% of European marketers spent 15% or more of their total budget on online marketing last year. Also, 49% of UK marketers, 38% of Spanish marketers, and 39% of Scandinavian marketers plan to spend 15% or more of their total budget on online marketing this year.

Interestingly enough, marketers in Europe tend to take advantage of in-house resources for managing their online campaigns over outsourcing this responsibility to an agency. Thirty-nine percent of European marketers manage their online campaigns in-house, while 21% of marketers rely on an agency. Twenty-four percent of European marketers cite using in-house resources in conjunction with an agency.