• by August 15, 2000

Nielsen//NetRatings today released the first-ever rankings of the top ad banners in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. The results showed a strong advertising presence by global web properties, and a correlation between advertising by global properties and the top-ranked property in each country.

Findings for the month of June cover eight major Internet markets worldwide, and reveal heavy ad buys by major Internet companies in most overseas markets. Global properties Yahoo! and MSN ran heavy ad schedules - primarily on their own properties - in Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and the UK. At the same time, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, those properties ranked first or second in terms of unique audience in each market for the month of June.

David Day, director of analytical services at ACNielsen eRatings.com, said MSN and Yahoo! have dominated the Nielsen//NetRatings global properties rankings and while their success in drawing large local audiences is tied to their careful attention to local content, “we cannot discount their heavy advertising, which focuses on such value-added services as instant messaging, sports, travel and shopping pages,”

“Their heavy ad banner schedules also show a greater faith in the effectiveness of the Internet as an advertising medium,” Day said. “More traditional brick and mortar companies, who are barely visible in the banner rankings, appear to still be reluctant to target consumers online.”

Day pointed to the heavy advertising by MSN in Canada - with each ad reaching an impressive 20% or more of the web population - as evidence of the strong correlation between advertising and top-property status. MSN was the top property in Canada for June, reaching 53% of the active Internet universe and a unique audience of 4,278,000. Within the MSN property, the messenger service, which the property heavily advertised in June, ranked as the 27th most visited page.

“In Canada, MSN is growing beyond its strong position in free email services, using advertising to boost traffic to the messenger service, positioning that capability as an opportunity for growth,” Day said. “The messenger service for Canada drew nearly 60% of its traffic from females, and a majority in the 25-34 year old age range. The demographics of the visitors to the messenger service's top-rated banner ad in Canada were also majority female, but with a slimmer, 53% margin, and with the majority in the much younger 12-17 year old age range.”

Day also noted that the opposite seemed true in Australia, where dot-com advertising appeared to sweep the month. However, a closer look at Carpoint.com.au, the ad banner that won the first three spots in that country in terms of percentage reach, but was the 326th most visited site in Australia for June, reveals that the site is a member of the ninemsn family. ninemsn is an online joint venture between the Microsoft Corpor