Every year, more and more of retail takes place online. The recession is pushing toward more direct response advertising, causing an uptick in online advertising between 3% and 5% in an otherwise down year. Search is expected to perform similarly, and 2010 is predicting an increase in online advertising dollars between 10% and 15%. For online publishers and advertisers, this means that despite sluggish growth overall, the Internet continues to grow at several times the overall economy. Although search engine consolidation has caused bid prices to increases, the prevalence of content networks and alternative search networks creates new opportunities for online advertisers to reach customers in a cost effective manner.
Social Media appears to be one of the interesting potential story, as a source of advertising dollars and business, search continues to grow, display ads are relatively stagnant, and alternative campaigns in new medias inches upward. Despite it’s status as media darling, Twitter remains a small niche play, with popular Facebook game FarmVille having more users than Twitter. Email newsletters remain big business, but the movement from getting content pushed into your inbox toward networks and feeds continues, creating new opportunities for online advertisement. 2009 looks to have finished as a slight positive in a down economy, and 2010 looks quite promising.