Over recent years, figures produced for PWC and the Internet Advertising Bureau, have been tracking the gradual demise of traditional (ie. Print) media. In 2005, advertising via the Internet exceeded that spent on cinema media for the first time, and last year’s figures showed online had left newspaper advertising in its wake. Its rise would seem to be inexorable, as would the demise of traditional media. However, further new figures suggest that the situation may not be quite that straightforward.

The Deloitte Tech & Media Report, released earlier this year, for example, suggests that 2008 will see “growing antipathy towards online advertising”, greater regulatory scrutiny and – shock horror – “growing competitiveness from traditional formats.” It seems there’s life in the old dog yet.

And it seems there’s plenty more where that came from. According to research produced by Pulsetracker for Amsterdam-based online ad firm Toading, 71 per cent of European companies have claimed deterioration in ROI on pay-per-click, “with 21 per cent of the total claiming a major drop in performance.” It blamed this decline in lack of expertise and an increase in competition, both of which are totally predictable things to happen when a route to market becomes established and widely understood.

So what does all this say about digital marketing and media? I’m not for a moment pretending that it’s all fad and is going to disappear in the next six months – that would be ridiculous. Digital is undoubtedly here to stay, but what is happening is that some of the gloss is wearing off, as it becomes more mainstream and the ability to use it for differentiation disappears.

The obvious consequence is that people will recognise that, although it will continue to offer fantastic opportunities, digital is not the panacea that we were led to believe it would be. Indeed, if the regulations are tightened as Deloitte suggests, it may become increasingly threatened and compromised. Meanwhile, traditional forms of communication are offering an increasingly effective means of cutting through the clutter to deliver business messages, just as inboxes become increasingly overloaded.

The next set of figures from the PWC/IAB figures are due in March, and these will undoubtedly demonstrate a continuing increase in digital spend. What they won’t show, however, is the real impact of this communication.