According to the quarterly PWC report (quoted here), online ad spending was $5.87 billion in Q3, which is 11% growth from a year ago… not bad given the economic implosion that has been (is) occurring, though obviously a significant slowdown from the year-before rate. Naturally market cheerleaders like the IAB are naturally going to trumpet that the “online ad sector [is] one poised to weather the storm perhaps better than other advertising sectors because of its cost-effectiveness and measurability”, but just because it is in their interest to say so, doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

One thing we have been seeing recently is a lot of large advertisers starting to buy more non-guaranteed inventory, and beginning to work with companies that can help make their ad buys more efficient and more measurable. The problem with the cost-effectiveness and measur(e)ability story about online media is that it has not yet quite been realized… and part of that is the issue that many of the people tuning the dials and switches in this industry are not yet of an analytical or quantitative-enough bent to do so properly. We see this changing, and I believe that the current downturn will in some ways accelerate this trend. And just because it is in my interest to say so, doesn’t mean that it won’t happen…(!) – Rob Leathern