NEW YORK Online advertising enjoyed another stellar period of growth during the second quarter of 2007, bringing spending for the first half of this year to nearly $10 billion, according to the latest data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Their research confirmed the medium remains the fastest-growing segment of the ad business. Online ad spending eclipsed $5 billion during the second quarter, per the "IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report," surging 25.4 percent over 2006 to a record $5.1 billion. (That's up roughly $2 billion from the same quarter just two years ago.) The Q2 growth spurred a record first half for Internet advertising in 2007, as spending soared by nearly 27 percent through the first six months to just under $10 billion. That sets up the online ad market to land between $20 billion and $21 billion for the year, said the IAB.

TBWA Gets on P&G Roster With $30 Mil. Pur Win

NEW YORK Omnicom's TBWA, after years of wooing Procter & Gamble, has landed on the company's roster by winning creative duties on the PUR water-filtration device, P&G confirmed last week. TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif., will oversee the account, which was handled by longtime P&G shop Saatchi & Saatchi in Torrance, Calif. Major media spending on the brand totaled about $30 million last year, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. PUR becomes the third P&G brand to leave Saatchi in the past two years, after Eukanuba and Old Spice. Eukanuba put independent Wieden + Kennedy on the P&G map in 2005, and the Portland, Ore., shop expanded its relationship with the addition of Old Spice in early 2006. Before Wieden, those two brands were handled by the New York office of Publicis' Saatchi. The PUR shift is expected to be completed by Jan. 1.

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