Olympics and US elections are expected to fuel online advertising

WPP, the world's second-largest online advertising group, posted revenue up 4.9 per cent year-on-year to £1.48bn for the third quarter, and expects growth to continue.

The company said the Beijing Olympics, the US presidential election and the European football championships would all help business in 2008.

And WPP said it had seen little impact from the recent credit crisis.

"Despite concerns about the impact of the recent liquidity crisis on levels of client spending, there has, as yet, been little or any effect on spending levels across the board, both functionally and geographically," said a company statement.

UK sales also improved, with revenue growth of more than four per cent compared with 3.7 per cent in the previous quarter.

In May, WPP paid $637m (£322m) to purchase loss-making web advertising broker 24/7 Real Media in a scramble that also saw Microsoft, Google and Yahoo acquire large web advertising companies.

WPP has continued to make a number of small to medium-sized acquisitions since then as part of its growth strategy.