The IAB published their internet advertising spend findings for the second half of 2008 this morning.

The research showed that entertainment and media over took the usual suspects in terms of advertising spend, making up 16.3% of £3.3 billion spent in the second half of 2008. Importantly retail saw a significant growth in the second half of the year from 6.3% to 9.1%, most probably due to the Christmas period, but still great to see this level of investment.

Click on the link below to see all the findings:

http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/2008internetadvertisingspend010409.html

Emarketer have published today the findings from a study by the Aberdeen Group looking into ROI within social media marketing.

The study found that 63% of the companies within the survey (defined as best-in-class) are planning to up their social media marketing budget for 2009.

The research also discovered that 39% of the companies surveyed said it was somewhat difficult to measure social media and 20% said it was very difficult. This highlights an interesting point in that even at a time when digital budgets are being scrutinised companies are still considering increasing  investment in a medium that’s hard to quantify.  I feel this underlines the importance and value that companies now put on social media, plus and most importantly how social media stands alone as platform within the digital media space.

A study by Netpop has shown that social networkers are much more likely to shop and spend more online than users that don’t engage with their social network.

The study showed that social networkers bought a number of products and services online, spending on average of $101 per month. Non-contributors to social networks spent about 20% less per month.

Social networking has grown 93% since 2006 , with 76% of US broadband users actively contributing  to the web via social media.