A third of the UK's Top 100 advertisers reduce their online ad spend
A third of the UK's top 100 online advertisers actually reduced their online advertising spend last year.
A study, compiled by Neilson, found that O2 remained the largest online advertiser despite cutting its spend by 30% to £9.9m in 2010.
The survey concluded that major firms still only allocate a tiny proportion of their budgets to online. Proctor & Gamble for example, the UK's largest advertiser, devotes just 1.3% of it budget to online, while it accounts for 1.9% of Unilever's spend.
However, in a move consistent with its policies across all media, the COI logged the biggest fall in online expenditure – cutting it 52% to £4.6m. Google, meanwhile increased its spend by 174% to £4m. Online display now accounts for 61% of its total ad spend.
However, the figures do not include investment in key words or social media, so it could be argued that online spend has not necessarily fallen, a proportion at least, has simply been diverted into these areas.