IAB reveals ad spend reaches £2.8bn

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) revealed UK's online ad spend has reached £2.8 billion. Its latest internet statistics of online marketing trends show display, search and classified advertising all experienced impressive growth. The internet has been the biggest driver of growth and accelerated the ad market nine times faster than the entire advertising sector. Chief executive, Guy Phillipson, described the results as a "very powerful performance". The research was carried out in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the World Advertising Research Centre and demonstrated a continued healthy growth and predicted online marketing spend could pass TV by the end of 2009. "These ad spend figures are proof that internet advertising is big business, and it's not going to stop growing anytime soon," commented Nicki Lynas, senior manager of entertainment and media practice, PwC. Analysts, Point Topic, estimated 69 million people worldwide signed up for broadband services last year.