The annual AdEx survey, conducted with the support of IHS Screen Digest, was released at IAB Europe's Interact Congress in Barcelona last week. It shows the online advertising market re-accelerating at a growth rate of 15.3 per cent (excluding 'other' formats) in 2010 after a slow-down to 4.5 per cent in 2009. Internet advertising growth outperformed the overall European advertising market, which grew by 5.0 per cent in the same period.

Total online adspend was €17.7bn in 2010, compared to €15.3bn in 2009. All European territories saw some growth, ranging from 37 per cent in Russia and 24 per cent in the Czech Republic, to 14 per cent in Denmark and seven per cent in France at the lower end.

The European market remains slightly smaller than the US which experienced almost exactly the same growth rate of 14.9 per cent last year and is now worth $26bn (€19.6bn at constant exchange rate 2010).

The biggest online markets by adspend are the UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy and Spain respectively . Together, the top six account for almost three quarters (74 per cent) of the total market with the UK and Germany alone accounting for 48 per cent. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) markets now represent almost a tenth (9.8 per cent) of that total.

Back in 2009, video was the only growth engine in an otherwise flat display market. Online display was hit by the overall advertising recession and declined in mature markets such as the UK and France. In 2010 by contrast, three pillars - mobile, video and social - attracted new advertising investment. The continued growth of online TV inventory, and long-form video consumption, pushed up spend while simultaneously maintaining high CPM (cost per thousand). Online video adspend doubled in most markets. In Spain online video grew 125 per cent to €13m; growth in the UK was 90 per cent to €63m.

Mobile advertising (search and mobile, excluding SMS) are included in the Adex survey for the first time this year. Although mobile adspend figures are available for only 12 of the 25 markets, they confirm that the long-awaited take-off of mobile advertising has been realised thanks to the advent of the smartphone/3G/apps ecosystem. For instance, mobile already accounts for approximately three per cent of total online display adspend in countries like the UK, Norway, Italy and Spain, and up to 11 per cent in Finland.

On top of fast-growing new formats and platforms, traditional PC-based, banner-style formats have remained attractive thanks to innovations in design (large formats) and targeting technologies and a rise in mainstream brands using display for branding campaigns.

Meanwhile, paid search continued to grow double-digit at a 15.1 per cent rate. It remains the biggest category in online advertising, with 45 per cent of total advertising spend compared with 33 per cent for Display and 22 per cent for Classifieds and Directories. Whilst some of the more established markets experienced smaller increases (UK +8 per cent like-for-like, France +10 per cent), many saw explosive growth (Hungary +44 per cent, Poland +31 per cent).