I came across an article a while back that I bookmarked so I could write about it when I got a chance. And here’s my chance! I’ve written before about how more and more traditional marketers are moving into the SEO and SEM fields, and this trend is obviously gathering steam.

The article was in the San Diego Business Journal and it was primarily about how TV currently dominates the marketing world. It’s where the most advertising dollars are spent. However, some interesting statistics show that this domination is changing.

• A McKinsey & Co. study found that TV audiences are HALF what they were in 1990, DESPITE a 40% increase in prime time marketing dollars.

• Forrester Research says that 16% of people ages 18 to 26 are spending more time online than watching TV. In addition, this so-called “Gen Y” adopts new technology faster than any previous generation.

The big Madison Avenue Marketers are paying attention to this and adapting accordingly. A survey conducted through the Association of National Advertisers showed that 78% of the respondants felt that traditional avenues of advertising had become less effective in the past two years. As a result, they intend to spend less on TV, and more on digital advertising.

However, rather than just throw money at a different advertising channel, more successful firms are leveraging Consumer Generated Marketing by doing things with viral video, for example. Companies are beginning to interact directly with the consumer more than ever before.

The benefit for the consumer is obvious. When you’re relying on the consumer to generate your marketing for you, it means that it’s now impossible to market a crappy product. For the marketer, the challenge is in keeping control in such a chaotic environment. Once you put something out there, if the response is not what you hoped for, there’s no way to take it back.

How will this shift in spending affect the web at large? I’m not sure, but with all the money that will get thrown at web publishers over the next few years, I expect to see a lot more advertising channels open up. Embedded video advertising and paid blogging are already a reality, and innovation will develop this “brought to you by” environment even more.

The article is here:
http://www.sdbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=8625973.5270914.1361958.3961848.2590585.697&aID2=104757