Published by the IAB Europe, in association with IHS, the report found that, in 2012, online advertising achieved an overall growth of 11.5% despite what the report called the toughest economic climate for the broader advertising market since 2009.

Online advertising spend managed to surpass newspaper advertising investment for the first time, accounting for €24.3bn of total advertising spend compared with a newspaper spend of €19.3bn.

As a result online advertising has become the second biggest media category in Europe and attracting one-in-every-four advertising Euros, according to the IAB.

In addition the report found that mobile display advertising grew by 78.3% equating to 5% (€392m) of all online display advertising spend in Europe.

CEO of IAB Europe Kimon Zorbas said: “Growth has continued at an impressive rate especially when compared with the overall economy. Even more remarkable is the increase in Central and Eastern European markets, which indicates their exciting potential.”