Google Surpases ITV1
Google’s headline advertising revenues surpassed ITV1’s in the third quarter as the search engine demonstrated it could generate more money from sponsored links than 30-second commercials in Coronation Street.
An analysis for The Times shows that Google generated £327 million in advertising between July and September, compared with an estimated £317 million for all of ITV1 across the UK during the same three-month period.
That is the first quarter in which Google has overtaken Britain’s top commercial channel and came despite ITV1 reaping an advertising boost from the Rugby World Cup.
Google racked up £925 million in advertising revenue in the UK in the first nine months and is set to come in at about £1.25 billion for the year as it continues to expand. A year ago it generated £871 million, overtaking Channel 4, meaning that its UK annual growth is about 43.5 per cent.
Whilst traditional forms of advertising focused on mass marketing are starting to decline, the rise of focused targeted marketing is showing how powerful search marketing can be. Mass marketing forms of advertising are still powerful ways of building a brand, but for immediate return, traceability and direct response, nothing can compete with internet marketing. Though some may argue that the full value of both traditional and new media is to create an integrated campaign with strong elements of both push and pull marketing techniques.
