We all know that marketing dollars are shifting from traditional media to online. Whether that means companies investing in their Web sites, advertising on portals like ours, creating microsites, buying banner ads or engaging social media, the world of B2B marketing is changing rapidly. We are seeing it daily in the public safety space both in terms of our success and the challenges our more traditional media-focused competitors are facing. For example, Cygnus Business Media, one of the companies we compete with in multiple verticals, has been hit particularly hard by changing trends (http://www.foliomag.com/2009/breaking-cygnus-files-chapter-11). I asked my team to pull together a summary of what media experts are saying to provide some context around what we are seeing in our markets:

Interactive Marketing Spending to Hit $55 Billion by 2014
U.S. interactive marketing spending will reach $55 billion by 2014, making up 21% of all marketing spending, according to a new report by Forrester Research. The report says search marketing will lead the growth, totaling $31.5 billion by 2014, followed by display advertising, which will total $16.9 billion. Also by 2014, spending on social media, projected to reach $3.1 billion, will top spending on e-mail marketing, projected to total $2.1 billion.

In surveying more than 200 marketers in March for the report, Forrester found that 60% plan to fund interactive marketing by shifting dollars away from traditional media. (Source: Forrester, “U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2009–2014”)

Top Executives Choosing Online
“Confirming what many already suspected, a recent poll from LinkedIn's Research Network and Harris Interactive found that advertisers are spending less ad dollars on print in favor of online. The poll of 1,015 top executives at ad agencies and their corporate clients found that 74% of advertisers that use Internet say they are using it more than they did one year ago, while 49% of advertisers that use print say they are using it less.

While conventional wisdom holds that newspapers and magazines are losing print ad dollars to the Internet, polls like the LinkedIn-Harris survey provide empirical evidence to prove it.” - Erik Sass, Media Post

Forecast: Declines in Magazine Spending Through 2013…Digital poised as fastest-growing
“The current economic slowdown, shifting consumer behavior and new ad-supported revenue models are triggering acceleration of digital migration.” - Bill Cobourn, PricewaterhouseCooper’s

Reallocation of Dollars Online a Reality
“60% of marketers surveyed will increase their interactive marketing budgets by shifting funds from traditional media. Print advertising was cited by 63% of marketers as being cut, outranking direct mail (40%) and broadcast (12%). Online display advertising, which currently stands at $7.83 billion, will rise by 17% annually, ending up at $16.9 billion in 2014.

Among CMOs facing lower budgets 19% said they cut branding and advertising because ‘I can't track its results’ and 26% said the same about their magazine expenditures On the other hand, 47% of CMOs whose budgets have been cut are increasing their spending on social media, while another 44% are increasing spending on Web site development. 40% will spend more on online advertising, and nearly that amount will increase financial resources in e-mail, considering these functions critical to their businesses, or needed to maintain competitive advantages.” - Forrester Research, reported by Richard H. Levey at Directmag.com

Macy's is giving magazines the cold shoulder.
The retailer has quietly cut its entire magazine spend for the first half of 2009, according to several publishers. "We were on a media plan for Macy's, and we got a call,'' said one publisher. "They scuttled the entire first half and are going online.'' - Ad Age

Automotive Industry Increases Online Spending 55%
“The automotive industry - caught in the grips of a recession and poor management - is turning to less expensive, more trackable media en masse.” - T.E.P. Research