Competitive pressures drove e-commerce and financial players to sharply
increase online ad spending in 1999, but online and computer-related
companies continued to lead the pack, according to a new report by Competitive Media Reporting‘s CMRinteractive.
The report also showed that online ad spending climbed to 2.1 percent of
the total advertising expenditures, jumping 85.9 percent to $1.910 billion
from $1.027 billion the year before. The types of companies advertising
also became more diverse in 1999, according to the report.
E-commerce companies boosted their spending by 153 percent over 1998
numbers, and the financial sector increased its Internet advertising outlay
by 107.1 percent.
Online and computer companies spent $663.1 million — 34.72 percent of
total online ad expenditures in 1999. Next came e-commerce firms, with 14.6
percent, or $278.4 million. Following them were financial players, spending
$191.7 million or 10.4 percent of the total.
Although these sectors accounted for much of the total, CMRinteractive
found evidence that the ranks of online advertisers are diversifying.
The top spenders included advertisers from several different parts of the
economy. The top five were Microsoft
($36.2 million), IBM ($27.1 million), General Motors ($21.4 million), HP ($16.2 million) and First USA ($14.6). Toyota and Honda were also in the top ten. Others in
the finance category include MBNA America
Bank, Fidelity Investments, Datek Online Brokerage, Visa and NextCard. Procter & Gamble was the sole top-ten player
from the consumer packaged goods category.
Other evidence for diversification includes the fact that computer-related
companies’ expenditures accounted for a lower percentage of overall
spending. In 1999, spending for the category made up 34.72 percent of the
total. In 1998, that percentage was 44.7, and in 1997, computer-related
companies accounted for 50.5 percent of all Internet advertising.