Traditional companies may be paying more attention to online
advertising, but they have long way to go to equal dot-com advertisers
when it comes to actually placing an ad online. Dot-coms outnumber
traditional advertisers online two to one, according to a report by AdRelevance, a division of online
audience measurement company Media
Metrix.
Key findings from the AdRelevance Special Report, which analyzes the
Top 200 online advertisers from the second quarter of 2000 and compares
dot-com companies to traditional businesses, include:
- The percentage of dot-com advertisers in the Top 200 rankings
increased from 54 percent in July 1999 to 68 percent in June 2000. - Dot-com companies are committing a greater percentage of online ad
impressions: 108 dot-coms committed 64 percent of the Top 200’s ad
impressions in July 1999; while, in June 2000, 138 dot-coms committed 75
percent of the impressions. - While dot-com advertisers outnumber traditional advertisers when
looking at all industries combined, the story is not quite the same when
the trend is examined across individual industries: Web media, retail
and business-to-business industries are dominated by dot-com
advertisers, with 85 percent, 74 percent, and 61 percent of the Top 200
online advertisers being dot-coms, respectively. Traditional
advertisers, however, populate travel (76 percent), software (84
percent), hardware and electronics (97 percent), and consumer goods (97
percent) industries.
“With the market’s recent performance and the increased pressure for
dot-coms to turn profits, it’s interesting to see that the clear
majority of the AdRelevance Top 200 Online Advertisers are dot-com
companies. According to the latest AdRelevance data, dot-com advertisers
account for 68 percent of companies and 77 percent of ad impressions
among the Top 200 Online Advertisers,” said Charlie Buchwalter, VP of
media research for AdRelevance.
“When compared to traditional
advertisers, the average dot-com appears to be spending more
aggressively, typically even outspending traditional advertisers.”
While dot-com advertisers might not account for the majority of
companies advertising online in some industries, the companies in the
Top 200 dominate ad spending in some instances. For example, although
only 32 of the Top 200 software advertisers are dot-coms, they account
for 86 percent of all impressions within the software industry Web
sites. Similarly, 48 of the Top 200 travel companies are dot-coms and
account for 80 percent of all travel advertising impressions placed by
the Top 200 travel advertisers.
“Despite the overall dominance of dot-com advertisers, traditional
advertisers have managed to stake a claim in some industries,”
Buchwalter said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that as traditional
businesses become more comfortable with online advertising, they will
begin to spend more of their budgets on the Internet — in fact that’s
probably the next wave we’ll see hit the online ad industry. But, until
that day comes, dot-coms are in the driver’s seat.”