Reports showing online advertising up & down
(By Tom on 11 June 2009 | Posted in Advertising)
The Wall Street Journal (subscription) wrote today that there are differing reports on the health of online advertising’s growth.
TNS is saying that “online display advertising, which includes banners, was up 8.2%” and the only medium seeing ad revenue growth. Obviously this is great news for online advertisers and marketers.
Not so fast, says PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is reporting online advertising revenue fell 5% in Q1 2009. Ouch.
So what gives? Is our industry growing, stagnant, contracting?
We have some ideas.*
1. Online advertising is not recession-proof
The current economic crisis is mercilessly weeding out the slagging elements of the world economy. This certainly includes historically huge online advertisers, like the auto industry and finance. Naturally, online advertising’s revenue, and growth, will slow with those big players hurting so much.
This aligns with PWC’s analysis.
2. Long-term is still bright
We actually feel a bit silly using the term recession when we’re actually amidst something much more serious — there are myriad depression comparisons these days.
But this depressing news is cause for optimism in our industry. While we’re not recession-proof, the new media is poised to really benefit once the economy turns around. This economy is revealing a lot about the ailments of print, radio and television industries. We’ve really hit a breaking point where the Internet is fragmenting all media types.
It’s gotten to the point where even New York Times isn’t looking like it’ll make it much longer.
If you haven’t seen the below clip, you’ll be amazed by it’s prescience:
What do you think? How is our industry fairing? Where will it go?
*We’re neither economists, nor analysts — or even that smart, really. So, we’d really like to start a conversation with your input. Please comment below!