NY Times: The Future of Web Ads is in Britain

The New York Times recently published an article entitled "The Future of Web Ads Is in Britain." The article states that Britain's online advertising spend, as a percentage of total ad spending, is the highest in the world at 14%, roughly twice that of the U.S. In fact, Terry S. Semel, chairman and CEO of Yahoo, Inc, is quoted as saying "The U.S. is so behind . . . [i]t’s certainly lagging the U.K. by at least a year or two."

The article goes on to emphasize the national nature of much British advertising, in contrast to the more regional nature of U.S. advertising. This struck a chord with me in view of problems that many users of systems such as Google AdWords have reported regarding their regionally targeted campaigns. Perhaps if there were a more reliable method of targeting online ads on a regional basis, U.S. online advertising spend wouldn't be so far behind.

In fact, I think the smaller marketplace available in the U.K. has enabled technological advances in other areas that have outstripped the U.S. such as interactive digital televsion and mobile phone services . . . but that's another story!