IAB Forum 2009 and Internet’s role in the Italian landscape

Today was the opening day of the long-awaited digital marketing event in Milan, IAB Forum 2009 at the Milano Convention Center (MIC) which we couldn’t possibly miss, of course.

I couldn’t help but to realize the selection of main sponsors who lined up for this year’s event. There was Banzai, Dada, Master Advertising, Triboo and Microsoft Advertising, which together with Dada, have been regulars for the past couple of years.  Apart from Microsoft Advertising, the remaining sponsors are all made in Italy, which clearly shows an increased interest in the interactive marketing landscape in the country.

The main topic in today’s opening speech by Layla Pavone, was the role of the internet in Italy and what it represents to Italian companies. Today, 88% of Italy’s 22.9 million internet users have broadband internet either at home or in the office. The use of the internet increases by the day, with a consequent increase in time devoted to it: 55% of users go online every day, while the average time spent online per month is 50 hours and 102 average minutes a day.

Other facts and figures revealed that Internet has become increasingly significant with relation to the search of information about companies and products. 85% of respondents declared that the internet represents a main source of information about products and services of interest, while 79% declared they first search for information online, then make their purchase at a POS.

Video, mobile and social networks are becoming paramount channels for promoting and executing highly-effective marketing campaigns for many brands across different industry sectors. Infact, both 2009 and 2010 continue to confirm the trend growth in advertising investments in Europe and in Italy. Online ad spend growth from 2009 -2010 is expected to grow by 7.6% across Europe.

To close, I’ll leave you with the below graph which allocates the different interactive channels and platforms existent today into three categories (from most influential to least influential): consumer driven, distribution driven and brand driven.

IAB Forum continues until tomorrow, for more information visit www.iabforum.it

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 8:38 pm and is filed under Media News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.