Internet Advertising Revenues at $5.9 Billion for Q3 ’08

Today I received an alarming e-mail from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) with a link to their press-release that read the following:

“NEW YORK, NY (November 20, 2008) — The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) today announced that Internet advertising revenues reached almost $5.9 billion for the third quarter of 2008″

That’s only a 11% increase from Q3 ’07 and only a 2% increase from the Q2 ’08. I remember when the Q1 ’08 report came out, I wrote an article titled “IAB Q1 ’08 Report in Perspective. 1/2 a year later and if you look at the graph above, you’ll see very little growth…more like a “bunny hill” than anything else.

“The growth of interactive advertising that we’ve been experiencing over the past few years has stabilized due in large part to the difficult current economic climate,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.”
Now that the Retail industry is predicting huge cuts in online spending, the Automotive industry in shambles,”the fourth quarter could see an actual decline in both U.S. and global growth.” (TechCrunch) Bear in mind this is highly speculative and there are more factors out there than our current economic situation. Online marketers are coming up with highly innovative and revenue generating cost-effective methods that may help fix this “situation”. Keep your fingers crossed, hold on tight, and hope Q4′s report is nothing more than a bunny-hill.