According to the latest Bellwether Report issued by the Institute for Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), Internet advertising continued to outperform other sectors.
 
The report noted that some 11.5% of companies are now diverting more than 15% of their budget to online marketing alone -  more than double that since the peak of the dot.com boom in 2000.
 
Internet advertising now represents 6% of the total UK marketing spend, and further growth is predicted this year.

As broadband take-up steadily rises in the UK, people are spending more time online and internet marketers are able to reach a broader range of demographics. Techniques such as Direct Link Ads allow web owners to put their websites to work and generate income.

Traditional content companies like ITV, GCap and Trinity Mirror have seen their income from advertising fall in recent months and many are rushing to acquire or develop online services that could captalise on the growth in web ads.

IPA president David Pattison said: "The growth is driven predominantly by direct marketing and internet advertising at the expense of the more established media sectors, continuing the trends that we have seen over the last 18 months."

The largest rise in advertising budgets were reported from companies in the service industries such as IT, computing, travel and entertainment as well as retailing whereas the industrial and utilities sectors saw the decreases in spend.