MediaCommunications

MediaCom View: Online adspend in the UK increased by 65% over last year. According to the IAB, online now accounts for 8% of the total market share and with growth expected to continue, online advertising is poised to surpass national press adspend in 2007. IAB chief executive, Guy Phillipson, said that it is a realistic possibility to envision a 2bn online adspend in the next 12 months. Search adspend was the biggest online advertising format and showed a 79% growth over the year to 768.4m. Consumer behaviour and demand are leading contributors to adspend growth. It will be interesting to see which verticals benefit the most from the increased spend.

MediaCom View: Women are certainly holding their own online. So much so that a recent study by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) revealed that by 2007 women will be spending more time online than men. Young professional women, and women with children, have been marked out as being the key drivers of the new trend. In fact, the internet is now Europes fastest growing media amongst women, giving online an even greater share of voice in the female market.

MediaCom View: The long-awaited IPA TouchPoints survey launched last week. This is a ground-breaking piece of research, which potentially generates a wealth of insights into how people live their lives in the current multi-media age. MediaCom, as a founding sponsor, now has access to the week-in-the-life view of some 5000 consumers, in a GB representative sample, and we are currently looking to quantify some of the more intuitive views about peoples media habits, and inform our clients about the best communication TouchPoints for their consumers. A further potential breakthrough will be later in the year when this survey is fused with some of the key industry standard measures e.g. BARB, TGI & NRS

MediaCom View : Sky has announced that the first High Definition PVRs will be installed in May, in time for both the World Cup and Wimbledon . Viewers have the opportunity to register for early installation but will need an HD ready television in order to receive the new channels which include Sky One, Sky Sports HD, Sky Movies HD plus Artsworld and National Geographic. The BBC have also confirmed plans to broadcast certain shows in HD but viewers will again need an HD compatible TV and set top box to enjoy the benefits of the new revolution in TV.