Report: More Big Companies Buying Online Ads

Of the Fortune 100 companies, 81 are now advertising online, up from 67 that did so a year ago, according to a report released Thursday by Jupiter Media Metrix.

However, Jupiter said that major media buyers are not increasing their spending onInternet ads as fast as smaller advertisers are.

“The good news is that more and more of the world’s largest companies are advertising online,” Jupiter director of media research Marc Ryan said. “However, marketers might be a little disappointed that these large companies are not yet significantly increasing the volume of impressions they buy.”

During the first half of this year, the biggest companies increased the number of online ads they bought by about 14 percent, while the market as a whole has grown by 54 percent, the report said.

Ryan said Fortune 100 companies account for about 8 percent of the onlineadvertising market, which he called “a fairly significant number” in lightof the fact that Jupiter’s AdRelevance tracking division monitors more than41,000 advertisers.

“With over a half million unique ads on the Internet, the industry has grownto gigantic and overwhelming proportions,” said Jupiter executive vicepresident Marty Levin.

Big Spenders

Among the major corporations, financial services and technology companies purchased the most online ads during the first six months of 2001, Jupiter said.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) was the biggest buyer, purchasing 2.2 billionimpressions. J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) was next, with 1.8 billion.

Dell Computer (Nasdaq: DELL) bought 1.7 billion ads, while Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Compaq (NYSE: CPQ) each bought 1 billion impressions. Next was AT&T (NYSE: T), with 1.3 billion ads, followed by Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT), with 1.2 billion.

Strategies Differ

Technology companies use different strategies in their online ad campaigns,the Jupiter study found. Most of Dell’s ads were corporate brand ads, withproduct-specific spots making up just a small portion of the total.

Compaq, by contrast, spread its 1 billion impressions among 16 different products, Jupiter said.

Compaq director of interactive marketing Mary Bermel told the E-CommerceTimes in a recent interview that hercompany generally tries to target its online ads to specific audiences.

“We might agree to spend a greater percentage on a site that provided somethingexclusive and beyond the banner,” Bermel said.

Portals Most Popular

Fortune 100 companies tend to use mainly portal sites to advertise theirproducts, the report found.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) was the most popular with the Fortune 100, hosting 3.6 billion, or 14 percent, of all Fortune 100 ads. MSN was next, with 2.3 billion ads, or 9 percent of the market, followed by Excite, with 1.6 billion ads, or 6 percent of the biggest companies’ ads.

iWon and Netscape rounded out the top five, with each accounting for 5 percent of the Fortune 100 market.