• July 18, 2005

Online ad spending continued to surge in the second quarter, according to a new study conducted by Deutsche Bank in conjunction with MediaPost. The strong growth appears to be the result of a combination of growth in marketers entering online advertising with a scarcity of premium inventory. The report, released today, shows that marketers spent more on Web advertising in the second quarter of this year than the first three months--when they spent more than in the last quarter of 2004. For the report, 116 media executives were questioned in June about their clients' experiences with Internet advertising in the second quarter, and expectations for the second quarter. This survey, which was conducted online by InsightExpress using members of the MediaPost advisory panel, is the third in an ongoing series of quarterly studies of media professionals by MediaPost and Deutsche Bank. Overall, two out of three--66 percent--of executives surveyed said that their clients' spending increased from the first quarter, while an additional 26 percent reported that budgets were flat. Almost half of all survey respondents (48 percent) said that marketers upped their spending by at least 11 percent--including 12 percent who reported increases of more than 30 percent. -- Wendy Davis