According to a joint study by MarketingProfs and Forrester Research, most business-to-business (B2B) marketers are not folding in the face of the economic downturn.

Forty-two percent reported planning to increase budgets for online video, rich media or podcasting; 41% projected more spending for Webinars and Webcasts; and 39% would be upping their commitment to e-mail. Read more at www.emarketer.com

See more at www.emarketer.com

Despite the decline in online display advertising—down 6.4% in 2008, according to Nielsen Media Research—some industry observers are predicting that banner ads are the next big thing in Internet marketing.

The Online Publishers Association (OPA) is certainly attempting to promote online display advertising.

The group, whose members include such prominent b-to-b media sites as Bloomberg, Businessweek.com, Forbes.com, Reed Business Information and The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, announced last month that it was introducing three new online advertising formats that are bigger, offer more video and provide more interactivity.

Over the past decade, media technology investment has tended to focus on search marketing

In the current economic climate, many marketers and their advertising agencies are focused on using the Web to generate leads through webinars and white papers. But they still see the Web banner ad as a versatile tool that can be used for branding, for aiding keyword search advertising and for generating leads.

Two elements working in online display advertising’s favor are that its tracking capabilities have been improved and its pricing made more reasonable, said Nate Elliott, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

Additionally, a new report from Eyeblaster also touted the synergy of online display advertising: “Display campaigns boost search activity days and even weeks after they end.”

“We haven’t seen any death of display,” said Kathy Sharpe, CEO of interactive agency Sharpe Partners. “There’s that old quote form Mark Twain: “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.’ ”Read more at www.btobonline.com

Using social media to market your business is a good idea. Just don’t plan on getting your whiz-kid nephew to do it for free

1. Social media is cheap, if not free.

2. Anyone can do it.

3. You can make a big splash in a short time.

4. You can do it all in-house.

5. If you do something great, people will find it.

6. You can’t measure social media marketing results.Read more at www.businessweek.com

Platform-A’s Business Intelligence organization, in partnership with Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), has released the results of a new study on trends in consumer couponing with interesting results

“What’s particularly remarkable about the study results is how open young people are to the idea of using coupons online — even though clipping coupons from the newspaper really hasn’t been their thing,” adds J. P. Beauchamp, senior vice president, IRI Consumer & Shopper Insights. “I think we’ll be seeing CPG manufacturers jumping on this trend — using online coupons to court a new generation of consumers and build loyalty during these cost-conscious times.” Read more at us.infores.com

Package-Goods Brand Earns $1.28 Million in Sales From $1 Million Social-Media Campaign

MySpace marketing ROI for unnamed personal-care brand: Total consumers exposed: 76.9 MILLION Percentage of internet population: 40% Total impressions: 1.1 BILLION Media outlay: $1 MILLION Offline sales generated from campaign: $1.28 MILLION Sources: ComScore, MySpace, Dunnhumby

Recent research from ComScore, MySpace and Dunnhumby presented at the Advertising Research Foundation’s Re:Think 2009 conference in late March suggests that even relatively small outlays on social networks by package-goods brands can result in offline sales impact and deliver positive return on investment. Read more at adage.com

Facebook Reaches 200 Million Users

In a switch, older users, above college age, are now joining fastest.

See more at www.emarketer.com

According to the IAB’s latest figures, spending on Internet advertising in the U.K. rose 17% in 2008. This, say experts, is a result of increased pressure on marketers to demonstrate and improve ROI

The largest chunk of online spend went to paid-search marketing, up 22.7% on 2007 to almost 60%, while online display accounted for 19%. Read more at www.bizreport.com

According to Nielsen’s numbers, mobile audiences are indeed big. There are 145 million mobile media consumers, with 127 million using SMS, 70 million downloading mobile content, 48 million using the mobile Internet and 12 million using mobile video

Mobile content revenue grew from $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007 to $7.9 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, representing year-on-year growth 60 percent greater than the Internet. Fifty-four percent of that revenue was generated by messaging—SMS and MMS.

In December, there were approximately 10.6 million people in the United States accessing social networks via the mobile Internet.

All of these trends spell opportunities for marketers.Read more at www.mobilemarketer.com

more boomers and matures go online to get health information, visit government Websites and look for religious information than members of younger age groups

In addition, boomers send e-mails, search online and make travel reservations as often as younger Internet users. Read more at www.emarketer.com

increase travel budgets during a slow economy will actually fare better than those that cut budgets back.

The survey of 401 executives at companies with more than $50 million in annual sales also found that: 82% of companies surveyed believe that business travel is important to achieving their business results; 81% believe that more client contact is necessary in a slow economy; and A strong majority (59%) strongly agree that in-person contact grows their business. Read more at www.traveldailynews.com

See more at www.ce.org