LONDON: Britain's advertisers have reposed their faith in the Internet. Net advertising spend in the UK grew by 19 per cent year on year to ?196.7m in 2002, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

The survey states that large advertisers have started returning to the online platform after the dotcom bust. However, the Internet is still lagging behind the traditional media - merely 1.4 per cent of the total amount spent on behind television, radio and billboards.

IAB chairman and former chief executive of ITV Richard Eyre was quoted as saying that there is a perceptible change in the mindset as far as Internet advertising is concerned.

The survey adds that the sharp rise can be attributed to aggressive selling by professional sales teams; leveraging improved research; and the increasing amount of time consumers spend on the internet. It also added that mega brands can track the effectiveness of their ads more easily whenever they use advertising on the Net.

The IAB has targetted taking more than 2 per cent slice of the total advertising pie by 2004. IAB's Eyre has urged online media owners to dream and aspire to set their sights higher to anything between 8-10 per cent.