Marketers will increasingly move away from traditional media advertising in favour of cheaper alternatives such as direct mail and the internet, according to a major new business survey.

Press, posters and television have already seen their share of marketing budgets shrink this year as advertisers switch to cheaper and more easily measurable ways of promoting their products.

And the trend is likely to continue, according to a study of global marketing spend by the London Business School for the advertising and marketing giant Havas.

Marketers expect to spend just 44.4% of their budgets on media advertising next year, down from 45.4% in 2001. But interactive marketing - including the internet - will see its share increase to 7% from 6.1% last year.

Many of those surveyed said they thought the shift away from traditional advertising was permanent.

"It is not working as well as direct marketing. We have sophisticated measuring tools and know it is not working," said one UK marketing director.

Another said media advertising did not provide "value for money", while a third cited the importance of the internet in targeting new customers.

"Overall, the reasons for a decreased proportion of the budget going to media advertising predominantly indicated a long-term change in resource allocation, with more resource going into direct and interactive marketing," the report concluded.

The London Business School predicts a modest - 4.2% - rise in overall marketing spending in the UK this year, rising to 5.2% in 2003.

Much of the growth will be driven by interactive advertising, which is forecast to rise by more than 23% next year after a 20% increase this year.

The London Business School surveyed more than 700 chief marketers in the US, Japan, UK, France and Germany for the report, one of the most comprehensive studies into how businesses spend their marketing budgets.