TEXT OF STORY

Scott Jagow: I’m not sure what’s worse: Listening to the same annoying holiday commercials over and over — If I hear “every kiss begins with Kay” one more time, I might lose it — or annoying holiday pop-up ads.

The reality is, Internet advertising may soon be king. The ad firm ZenithOptimedia predicts spending on Web ads will surpass radio next year. Steve Tripoli has more.

Steve Tripoli: Ad buyers will push the Web up their priority lists next year for a simple reason, says Advertising Age’s Abbey Klaassen:

Abbey Klaassen: You’re going to see marketers put their money in places that are more accountable. And the Internet, because it’s response-based, tends to be that way.

The forecast also says ad spending will grow nicely worldwide next year, despite economic uncertainty, and despite slow ad growth in the U.S. and Western Europe. Klaassen says big events that only happen every four years will stoke that growth.

Klaassen: The Olympics always tends to bring out a lot of ad spending — especially an Olympics in China, where marketers are putting a lot of attention lately. The other thing, you know, we have an election.

But the biggest engine driving ad growth will be emerging markets. They’re sinking much more into paid persuasion. Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe will pick up the richer countries’ slack.

The projected ad tab worldwide? A cool $485 billion.

I’m Steve Tripoli for Marketplace.