Following the market slow-down in the US, reports released by Jupiter and www.consult suggest Australia may follow suit.
Jupiter Research has suggested the Australian market is volatile and lacks critical mass, a view reinforced by www.consult's report that only $83m was spent on banner advertising during 2000, well short of the projected $100m.
Leo Burnett head of interactive media Mark Renshaw agrees there is a slow-down.
"Let's not forget that there's more to online advertising than just banner ads," he said. "Advertisers who have always spent online will continue to do so but the online banner component is certainly being reviewed."
Even blanket online banner campaigns could have positive spin-off effects, he said, giving advertisers the opportunity to build a database, which could be leveraged for more targeted direct e-mail campaigns.
Renshaw's optimism is shared by Forrester Research, which produced a report "Online Advertising Eclipsed" showing that Australia and Japan were driving 80% of the Asia Pacific's online advertising spend and predicted the region's spend would hit $4.5bn by 2005.
The report said online advertising's demise had been greatly exaggerated and that the current "swoon" would not sound the death knell for online ads.
Far from abandoning the Web, Forrester said dot coms and traditional companies were planning to grow their online presence: "as traditional marketers learn that online advertising is just the first stage of a campaign, they will augment budgets for later-cycle activities like promotions and e-mail," Forrester analyst Jim Nail said.
