Moneysupermarket.com ads aid revenue

A series of TV adverts appear to have done price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com some good, with first half revenue expected to have risen by about 5%.Revenue for the six months ended 30 June is put at about £71.5m, with UK internet revenues up around 6% year on year, or just over 10% excluding travel. The firm employed Iranian comic Omid Djalili to appear in a series of ads as part of a £20m media campaign.It said profitability improved throughout the period as it began to see a return on its investments. The Money and Insurance and Home businesses have all grown at approximately 10%, maintaining the momentum from the first quarter, offsetting a 20% slump in Travel revenue.Media spend was £2.5m more than the same period last year reflecting the costs of establishing a new campaign launched in January, while third party costs incurred in product development have risen by £1.3m."The results of the enhanced investment have been pleasing with gross margins increasing over the same period last year reflecting an increase in direct to site revenues in part aided by the new television campaign, "the group said Friday.It reckons EBITDA will be around £18m for the first half of 2010 against £18.6m reported for the first half of 2009 reflecting the higher levels of investment.