Jon Gibs
We’ve spent a good deal of time at Nielsen lamenting some rough news in online advertising. Our estimates suggest that overall spending on display advertising has recently declined. And even the more optimistic estimates from the IAB, which account for additional interactive advertising segments, including search, suggest only a slight up-tick, 2%, on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Although the Internet is not suffering like print media , let’s just say we’ve all been through better times over the past couple of years.
With that said, let’s …

Within the whirlwind of negative news regarding the economy and the advertising outlook, I found a significant, welcome trend in the IAB’s recent revenue report covering the first half of this year. I’m scratching my head trying to understand why more hasn’t been made of this, because it portends hugely positive things for the online space.
The IAB recently announced a 15.2% year-over-year growth rate for Internet advertising for the first half of 2008. When you dissect the 15.2% number, some interesting details emerge. Out of nine industries tracked, only four …