Traditional Marketing Budgets Lose To Interactive

According to Forrester Research, reported by Richard H. Levey at Direct Magazine, 60% of marketers surveyed will increase their interactive marketing budgets by shifting funds from traditional media. Direct mail was cited by 40% of marketers as being one being cut, outranking newspapers (35%), magazines (28%) and television (12%).

Among the interactive channels, the study finds social media and mobile marketing spending expanding between 2009 and 2014, with social media jumping by 34% on a compounded annual basis and mobile marketing increasing by 27%. Social media starts at $716 million in 2009, increasing to $3.11 billion by 2014. Mobile marketing
expenditures stand at 319 million this year, and goes to $1.27 billion by 2014.

Online display advertising, which currently stands at $7.83 billion, will rise by 17% annually, ending up at $16.9 billion in 2014. Search marketing, which currently accounts for $15.39 billion in spending, will jump by 15%, to $31.59 billion, and e-mail, now at $1.25 billion, will increase 11%, to 2.08 billion.

Facebook User Figures Power Past MySpace In June

As expected, usage figures for social networking site Facebook have finally eclipsed those of longtime rival MySpace.

In May, Facebook’s unique visitor count caught up to MySpace, then surpassed it by a small margin. By June, Facebook hit 77 million unique visitors, representing a significant rise from May’s 70.28 million uniques—and leaving MySpace’s 68.4 million uniques in the dust, according to comScore.

Bing Reports 8 Percent Visitor Growth Its First Month

Microsoft is definitely relishing its Bing moment, communicating gains in market share every chance it gets to build a story of steady progression against both Google and Yahoo. Today, Microsoft self-reported an 8 percent increase in unique visitors to its search engine in June, the first full month after it debuted its Bing search engine (comparisons are to its previous effort, Microsoft Live Search).

Viewers Will Pay for Online Video, Report Says

According to a new report issued by Strategy Analytics, consumers may be far more willing to open their wallets to purchase Web video content, much as they do with music, than many once believed. The Boston-based research firm forecasts that worldwide consumer spending on online video content could reach $3.8 billion in 2009 despite the recession. That figure would exceed the $3.5 billion in online video ad revenue expected this year, the report says.