There is an interesting article today in Marketing Daily stating that with more and more people turning to online and digital sources for their entertainment and information, marketers will now be investing more in the digital space on brand-building (as opposed to direct-response) advertising in the coming 2012 year.
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From the article, “in 2012, 60% of marketers’ digital advertising budgets will be devoted to online branding, according to a survey conducted by ad tech company Vizu. It found that 64% of markets will increase their online brand advertising budgets, with more than a fifth saying they planned to increase them by 20%. (Comparatively, only 56% of marketers said they planned to increase their online direct-response budgets.) Similarly, 60% said they were re-allocating dollars away from direct-response and into brand initiatives.”

I agree with the market on this. The digital market reaches most segments of the consumer audience these days, not just the early adopters or younger audience.  We’ve seen this clearly through our FrontGate Media web sites where we’re have consistent, year after year growth in traffic and uniques.  For just one example, see the recent news release about NewReleaseTuesday.com.

We are also seeing this via our Social Media campaigns for clients. For example, we are reaching out to men for Men’s Expert Kenny Luck at Every Man Ministries, as well as to women on behalf of men.  We’ve also seen the same thing with The Barnabas Group where we are reaching out to business leaders. A few years ago, these types of organizations weren’t reaching out all through social media, and only somewhat through other digital media opportunities.

The article goes on to make several more good points about digital advertising.  Read the whole piece at MediaPost.  Feel free to post your thoughts below.