Report: Online Ad Spending Down, No Quick Recovery
Online ad spending dropped 10 percent in the first half of 2001 and prospects for a recovery this year are dim, a research group said Monday.CMRi, the Internet unit of ad research firm Competitive Media Reporting, New York, said online ad spending fell to $1.5 billion in the first half of 2001. The group does not expect to see an increase until the first quarter of 2002.
``Although we saw a gradual increase for online spending in the last quarter of 2000, the economic environment did not exclude this medium from the drastic hit we've seen across the entire marketplace throughout the course of 2001,'' said David Peeler, CMR chief executive. ``As budget planning for 2002 gets under way, companies still recovering from their losses will be reluctant to channel their dollars toward major ad campaigns. With this mind-set, we do not expect a jump-start in spending to kick in by first quarter 2002, as many have hoped.''
General Motors Corp spent the most money of all advertisers allocating $25.4 million to the Internet. Ebay was a close second, spending $24.4 million.
Among Web sites, Yahoo was first in revenues with $197.3 million. AOL Time Warner was second with $174 million.
