Image-based online ad spending by consumer goods companies increased 57 percent over the last two years, growing from $99.8 million in the first quarter of 2007 to $156.2 million in the same quarter in 2009, according to new Nielsen research.

Quarter-over-Quarter Growth in Online Display Ad Spend by U.S. Consumer Goods Industry

"While direct response advertising has been very successful on the Internet, with categories like finance and travel devoting a significant portion of their budget to online advertising, on-line advertising will not continue to grow as rapidly without major brands beginning to devote larger portions of their ad budgets to the Web.  We are seeing some of that happen now with Consumer Packaged Goods companies, which are growing their budgets despite a down economy," said David Wiesenfeld, vice president, online marketing solutions at Nielsen.

YouTube was the top entertainment web site for consumer product companies in 2009, with 637.7 million display ad impressions and a 24 percent share of all advertising in the genre.  AOL.com and Oprah.com rounded out the top three.  YouTube was also the fastest growing site among the top 10, increasing 572 percent year-over-year.

Read the full release regarding consumer product online display ads here.