Offline Spending by Internet Brands Passes $1 Billion

Advertising by dot com companies in traditional media saw explosive growth over the first three quarters of 1999 with spending at $1.4 billion, according to Competitive Media Reporting.

Advertising by dot com companies in traditional media saw explosive growth over the first three quarters of 1999, with spending at $1.4 billion, up 291.3 percent from the same period last year, according to Competitive Media Reporting (CMR).

If those numbers sound impressive, realize they do not include the holiday-season spending. Once included, CMR predicts that dot com companies have already more than doubled the $649.2 million spent offline for all of 1998.

CMR tracks advertising dollars spent on television, newspapers, magazines, radio, and outdoor. Its tracking technologies collect occurrence and expenditure data as well as the creative executions of over 900,000 brands in 15 media.

“This is surely one of the fastest growing industries, if not the fastest, we have ever seen,” said Jerry Arbittier, senior vice president corporate research and analysis CMR. “The holiday season has created a tremendous pressure for companies to draw people to their sites. We do not make predictions, but anyone who is watching TV, reading newspapers or magazines knows that fourth quarter spending is going to be tremendous.”

Increases in spending have been across every medium. Network TV, up 362.4 percent, claimed the most advertising dollars at $278.3 million. Magazines followed with $265.1 million, up 190 percent, and Cable TV was next, up 366.1 percent to $202.6 million.

Online broker E*Trade was by far the leading advertised Internet brand, spending $89 million in the first nine months, up 424.5 percent from $17 million during the same period in 1998. Value America was second, up 148.3 percent to $46.5 million, followed by Charles Schwab at $40.8 million, up 9,142.7 percent. Snap.com was fourth, up 1,096.8 percent to $38.1 million and Ameritrade, who did not have any ad spending in 1998, was fifth at $36.4 million.

Other significant top 10 spenders included Monster.com up 8,659.5 percent to $20.6 million and Go.com at $20.3 million and Discover Brokerage at $17.1 million.

Dot Com Offline Ad Spending
Category Jan.-Sept. 1999 Jan.-Sept. 1998 Percent Change
Online & Internet Services $288,860,000 $114,398,500 152.5%
E-Commerce $1,077,201,400 $234,743,200 358.9%
Total Dot Com Spending $1,366,061,400 $349,141,600 291.3%
Source: Competitive Media Reporting
Top Internet Brands Spending Offline
Rank Brand Jan.-Sept. 1999 Jan.-Sept. 1998 Percent Change
1. E*Trade $88,985,000 $16,967,100 424.5%
2. Value America Stores $46,538,200 $18,743,600 148.3%
3. Charles Schwab $40,861,900 $442,100 9,142.7%
4. Snap.com $38,054,800 $3,179,700 1,096.8%
5. Ameritrade $36,388,900
6. AT&T Business Network $32,845,500 $21,382,900 18.6%
7. America Online $30,051,100 $25,338,000 18.6%
8. Monster.com $20,613,700 $235,300 8,659.5%
9. Go.com $20,306,200
10. Priceline.com $20,116,600 $8,034,000 150.4%
11. Amazon.com $17,730,400 $14,028,500 26.4%
12. Discover Brokerage $17,091,400
13. AT&T Worldnet $16,073,900 $20,587,300 -21.9%
14. Microsoft Online $16,067,200 $993,300 1,517.6%
15. Yahoo $16,028,900 $4,274,200 275.0%
Source: Competitive Media Reporting
Dot Com Spending by Media
Rank Measured Media Jan.-Sept. 1999 Jan.-Sept. 1998 Percent Change
1. Network Television $278,275,800 $60,184,500 362.4%
2. Magazines $265,085,100 $91,401,600 190.0%
3. Cable TV $202,627,000 $43,471,900 366.1%
4. Spot Television $166,928,300 $44,120,000 278.4%
5. National Spot Radio $154,621,400 $27,400,800 464.3%
6. National Newspapers $148,659,900 $41,404,000 259.0%
7. Newspapers $69,392,900 $17,522,500 296.0%
8. Network Radio $43,137,500 $17,172,200 151.2%
9. Outdoor $24,640,300 $3,972,400 520.3%
10. Sunday Magazine $6,978,300 $581,000 1,101.1%
11. Syndication $5,715,200 $1,910,700 199.1%
Source: Competitive Media Reporting

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