The UK has surged ahead as the leading country for online ad spend in percentage as it now totals 11.4 percent of all advertising revenue in the country, said the Guardian. It is now ahead of the national newspapers' share as well.
It leads the world now, as globally the average online ad spend is 5.8 percent, while even in the U.S. it accounts for between 7-7.5 percent of the total.
The country grew strong in 2006 with a 41 percent increase, bringing its total to £2.016bn. For traditional media companies in the U.K. there was good news as the strong online ad growth helped to offset other losses and as a result the overall industry was able to rack up a small increase of 1.1 percent for the year.
"Advertisers are continuing to switch more of their budgets online to build their brands and interact with their customers," IAB chief executive Guy Phillipson said. "With consumers now enjoying even faster broadband and installing wireless routers in their homes, the growth of online advertising in the UK is set to continue unabated."
Search advertising is the fastest growing area in the U.K still, surging by 51 percent for the year, enjoying a 57.8 percent of the market. Online classified advertising also had strong growth finishing at 18.8 percent which was a 45 percent increase over the last year.
One interesting insight into the growth in Britain has been the resuscitation of the banner ad, which has become important again because of the addition of rich media like animation, video and audio to them.
Britain has approximately 31 million online users.
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