IAB Italy has recently released a report with some interesting numbers concerning the development of online advertising in "my" country. In the first quarter of 2003 online advertising spendings have raised of 7.7%. In particular, it appears that clothing, beverages and self care industry, together with public institutions have strongly started investing in the Internet as promotional media.
Sponsorships are the preferred kind of advertising covering 21.6% of total investments. Email advertising is also on the rise (9.8%) while mobile advertising through SMS has suffered of a strong slowing down (-28.5%).
If you want to know more about what's going on in Italy, drop me a line, I'll translate some more data for you :-)