CAMPAIGN INTERACTIVE: INTERNET ADWATCH - IT corporates continue to lead monthly adspend as IBM breaks the pounds 100,000 mark, Claire Cozens says

IBM was back on top of Fletcher Research’s table of the highest

spending online advertisers in the UK for July with a pounds 117,000

spend.

The figure is the biggest recorded spend since Fletcher began releasing

its data six months ago. The US computer giant is the first to break the

pounds 100,000 monthly spend barrier, easily beating the record set by

Microsoft which spent pounds 97,000 in June.

Microsoft continued to spend heavily in July but the third ubiquitous

top-spending IT company, Hewlett Packard, had a quiet month down in

eighth place. BT, too, spent less than it has in recent months, leaving

the ground open to advertisers not usually associated with big online ad

expenditure and allowing Barclays Bank to claim the the third spot with

a spend of just pounds 49,000.

The good news is that the underspending of these key advertisers didn’t

prevent the total adspend figure for the month reaching a record pounds

1,523,000 - an 8.7 per cent increase on June.

But if the reliance on top-spending high-tech advertisers appears to be

decreasing, the dependence on a small number of big spenders

remains.

The top ten advertisers alone accounted for pounds 512,000 - 34 per cent

of the total adspend.

One new entry to the top ten was Citigroup, which in July launched an

offer of 12 months’ free internet access. Citigroup spent pounds 39,000

across the major newspaper websites including the Sunday Times, as well

as on search sites such as Excite. Terry Taylor, the marketing manager

for Citigroup UK, says the internet is used specifically to reach the

target market for its virtual banking services.

Another new advertiser in the top ten was Pearson, which advertised its

Financial Times World Cup promotion in early July. The ads were placed

on specialist sport sites and on news and search sites.

One of the top-spending sectors is web navigation, so this month we’ve

taken a look at how they compare. These are the web directories and

search engines that now like to call themselves portals, and which are

the first point of contact for internet users. The figures used exclude

internal advertising but include barters.

The advertising spend in the web navigation sector tends to be dominated

by barters. As William Reeve, the research director at Fletcher

Research, points out: ’A search engine and a sports site, for example,

will be happy to cross-promote each other to grow the overall market

because they are not direct competitors.’

Even allowing for barters, however, only eight advertisers in this

category spent more than pounds 10,000. Fletcher doesn’t quantify spends

below that figure.

TOP UK WEB ADVERTISERS

Rank      Advertiser        Estimated value* (pounds 000s)

1        IBM                                    pounds 117

2        Microsoft                               pounds 94

3        Barclays                                pounds 49

4        British Airways                         pounds 47

5        UUNet                                   pounds 42

6        Citigroup                               pounds 39

7        BT                                      pounds 33

8        Hewlett Packard                         pounds 32

9        Lycos                                   pounds 31

10       Pearson                                 pounds 28

TOP WEB NAVIGATION ADVERTISERS

Rank      Advertiser        Estimated value* (pounds 000s)

1        Lycos                                   pounds 31

2        Microsoft                               pounds 21

3        Netscape                                pounds 18

4=       Disney                                  pounds 17

4=       Excite                                  pounds 17

6        Associated Newspapers                   pounds 16

7        LineOne                                 pounds 11

8        Virgin Net                              pounds 10

9        LookSmart                                     n/a

10       X-treme Technologies                          n/a

Internet Adwatch values estimated using rate-card-equivalent prices.

Estimates do not take into account publishers discounts. Excludes

advertising and adverts placed with barter networks(e.g LinkExchange)

Data supplied from internet AdWatch(tm), the advertising monitor

produced by Fletcher Research (www.fletch.co.uk, 0800 068 1101).

This article was first published on Campaign