Recent research from US company, Forrester, which has been reported by the UK Guardian suggests that Internet advertising spend in Europe will more than double over the next 5 years, to represent about a fifth of total media budgets by 2012. The predicted figures show online advertising growing from €7.5bn in 2006 to over €16bn by 2012. This spend covers email marketing, search, display and other online advertising, with the UK continuing to lead the market and to spend the most on Internet advertising.

Forrester's survey says that 54% of European companies have set their online advertising budgets higher for 2007 than for 2006. This predicted growth is being driven by rapidly spreading broadband access, with the number of European consumers using this highspeed Internet access expected to rise from 47m to 83m by 2012. As a result, Internet advertisers are increasingly expanding their campaigns into new formats, such as video or creative banner advertising.

This increasing spend is also in response to changing media habits, with more than a third of Europeans saying they watch less television because they are online, according to Forrester's research. A third of online consumers also said they do not mind seeing adverts if they relate to their interests, plus 40% of Internet consumers apparently trust price-comparison sites and 36% trust online product reviews from other users. This suggest that advertisers may look at ways to make more of online marketing, including email campaigns and blog advertising.