Digivate - More money for your blog

Online marketing is the most lucrative form of advertising, according to a joint study by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The industry achieved above-expectation growth of 41.3 per cent this year, taking its market share to 14.7 per cent.

Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the IAB, commented: “The online market is developing at an astounding rate and once again we see exceptional growth and a significant increase in market share. Ninety per cent of internet users are on broadband now and nearly 40 per cent are using wireless.”

He added: “Importantly, marketers have a much better understanding of how online works and how to measure the effects of brand advertising as well as direct response.”

Classified advertising now accounts for 20.8 per cent of all internet advertising spend, growing by a staggering 72 per cent over the past year to £277.7 million.

Meanwhile, internet display advertising - which includes banners, skyscrapers and rich media formats - was up 33 per cent to a share of 21.5 per cent.

Sportswear super-brand Nike is set to increase its spending on online marketing.

The sportswear company has just appointed AKQA as its global digital agency for its online projects in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the US and Canada, India’s Economic Times reports.

All of the projects are football-related.

Nike already works with AKQA on a number of web-development initiatives.

The company currently spends just £269,000 of its £9.2 million UK media budget on online advertising, according to Nielsen Media Research. However, that is expected to increase significantly with the new appointment.

Nike is keen to promote football to youngsters ahead of Euro 2008. Its ‘urban football’ scheme involves a number of UK-based, Nike-branded sports events.

It has already managed a similar project in the Asia-Pacific region, a special training programme for youngsters called ‘90 days of football’.

The world’s leading supplier of sportswear and equipment, Nike takes its name from the Greek goddess of victory.