Note to all you "attention-based" vehicles out there...

Estimated internet advertising in Canada is expected to reach $801 million during 2006, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, as reported in Media in Canada. That will be up 54% from last year's $562 million. By comparison, total magazine advertising in Canada is about $1 billion ($590 million in consumer magazines).

"There's no question that Canadian marketers are getting the Internet religion," says Lynn Fletcher, formerly Arnold Worldwide's chief strategic officer and now a partner in Toronto-based Fletcher Weir Consulting. "In many cases, agencies are rushing to catch up, (but) clients are well aware that, as they move on from attention-based connection strategies, they need larger investments in the Internet to really deliver engagement - especially among key youth and business-to-business targets."

"Attention-based connection strategies". Magazine publishers, this means you.

Paula Gignac, the President of the IAB (and formerly in charge of Rogers Media's women's service websites -- Chatelaine, Flare and Today's Parent -- says in a release on the IAB's website that the share of dollars allocated to Internet advertising (almost 7 percent of total ad spend in Canada for 2006), is quickly moving towards the 10-15 percent mark.

"And while 7 plus percent is a good result, it's definitely shy of where Internet spending in Canada should be, given that there are over 21 million unduplicated users, or 62 percent of the total Canadian population Online every month. To compare, in the United States, only 57 percent of the total population uses the Internet every month.

"If we can get the Canadian industry to a billion plus dollars by 2007, and Internet spending closer to 9 percent of the total, then," says Gignac "we're really going to see a tipping point for the medium."

Meanwhile, a report from Jupiter Research says that the 9 per cent internet ad spending in the U.S. is largely being done in conjunction with search engines.