The latest AdRelevance research from Nielsen//NetRatings reveals that a total of 286 Fortune 500 advertisers launched an online advertising campaign during the last quarter of 2002, as compared to 270
the year prior – a 6% increase year-over-year. Not surprisingly, Amazon.com, ranked No. 492 on the Fortune list, peaked as the top online advertiser in Q4 2002. Amazon recorded 12.2 billion ad
impressions during the busy holiday season. Cosmetics company, Estee Lauder, ranked No. 360 on the Fortune 500 list, claimed the No. 2 spot with 9.5 billion impressions, while USA Interactive posted
seven billion impressions for the quarter. SBC Communications and Barnes & Noble rounded out the top five with six and 5.8 billion impressions served, respectively. One of the more interesting
findings in the report is rich media-related. Half of the top rich media advertisers last quarter were Fortune 500 companies. Hewlett-Packard, ranking No. 28 on the Fortune 500 list, led the way with
more than three billion impressions using rich media. SBC Communications, another top 30 Fortune 500 company, came in as the No. 2 rich media advertiser with 1.5 billion impressions. Microsoft,
Cassava, and Harris Investor Services rounded out the top five. Of the top ten rich media advertisers, Cassava Enterprises, owner of Casino-On-Net.com, was the only pure Internet-based business.
Additionally, only two of the top 10 rich media advertisers appeared in the top 10 in 2001, suggesting that rich media is still in the process of being discovered by more advertisers.
