by Tatiana Repkova

Automotive grew to a $31 billion advertising category this year on compound annual growth of 3.7 percent in the past five years. Over the next five, however, we are projecting compound growth of just 1.7 percent. Meanwhile, the online portion of automotive advertising will reach $2.8 billion this year – 7.6 percent of all automotive advertising – with a 13 percent CAGR. By 2010 online will hit $4 billion and become the second-largest medium for automotive advertisers, surpassing newspapers, cable, radio, direct mail – everything but broadcast TV. At the local level things get more interesting. Next year online media will become the No. 1 expenditure for used-car marketers, surpassing newspapers for the first time. Used-car dealers have pinto online than the manufacturers – 19.6 percent in 2006. Private-party auto advertising has migrated online even faster with 27 percent of that segment now going to online media. Borrell Associates, May 2007