Interactive marketing will top $55 billion by 2014 - and account for 21% of all marketing expenditures by 2014, according to a new report from Forrester Research.
According to the firm, it's not like this means people are spending more on interactive; rather, 60% of the 200 marketers surveyed said most of the growth will come from budget cuts to traditional advertising. Social media, mobile, search, email and display ads will see a lot of that growth.
To be clear, I doubt this is a dollar-for-dollar transition. I think it's just less money to go around everywhere, and more being allocated to interactive. For instance, the report says the biggest growth area will be through social networks. Well you'd have to spend a lot of money to advertise on social networks because it's dirt cheap - and has never shown to be especially effective. Creating branded social networks can make sense for some brands, but there again, that doesn't necessarily mean a huge amount of spend.
Here's the net-net part for ad industry folks: According to PR Week, the report warns traditional agencies that “can't transition from pushing out messages to nurturing customer connections aren't long for this world,” and will be usurped as the AOR for big brands by interactive firms like Razorfish.
In my new book THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, I look at this dynamic, and talk to Derek Robson, managing director of advertising powerhouse Goodby, Silverstein & Partners about the agency's efforts to transform itself from a shop best known for eye-popping TV commercials to a kick-ass digital marketing machine. Along the way, they went from about 20% digital, 80% traditional to 60% digital, 40% traditional in a matter of just a few years.
As a side note, a current favorite initiative of theirs is the new augmented reality experience for Doritos.
Change is here, and agencies had better get with it - or get left behind.
Read more about the Forrester study, here.
Read more about the new book, coming Spring 2010, by clicking the link below:
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