Despite a first quarter slowdown due to the global financial crisis, revenues from online advertising in Australia grew by 19% in 2008/09 to reach a total market value of $510 million.

According to a report from research company Frost & Sullivan, mobile advertising also grew during the year but is still blossoming with take-up hampered by a lack of industry standardisation and sophistication in targeting and personalisation.

The total value of the Australian mobile advertising market for 2008/09 was $7.5 million.

The report, ‘Australian Online General and Mobile Advertising 2009-2013′, has documented the trends and performance of mobile and online advertising activities such as display advertisements, electronic direct mail, integrated content, streaming video and email newsletters during the 12 months to June 2009.

“Although 2009s overall growth is slightly down when compared to the 22% increase in 2008, its still a very strong result given the economic environment. We anticipate that the online general advertising market will experience healthy growth over the next five years, reaching close to $1.2 billion in 2014,” explained Phil Harpur, senior research manager at Frost & Sullivan Australia New Zealand.

The report notes that although site display revenues may pick up again as economic conditions improve, the swing toward performance based solutions is expected to grow steadily over the next five years.

Email direct marketing was a strong performer, recording a growth rate of 20% during the year, with online video’s market share increased significantly to 25%.

This trend is expected to continue over the next few years especially as advertisers look for alternatives to the mainstream and established online display market.

Of the respondents surveyed, 40% of participants indicated that their company’s online general advertising budget increased in 2009 compared to the previous year, while 21% of companies indicated a decrease and 37% stated there had been no change.

In an interesting result, 15% of companies reported that they will be planning online budget reductions.