Connecting with consumers has taken on remarkable new forms in the last year due to technology, the web, and social media. Ad budgets are going to look very different in 2009 as companies try to understand the changes and cope with current economic realities. Here are some trends I see for 2009.

• Search and performance-based media will continue to garner increased attention and budget dollars. There will be exciting advancements in local, semantic and vertical search that will keep search marketers on their toes.
• Social media will be recognized as an important part of branding and connecting to the customer but most attempts to monetize will appear cheesy. Engagement ROI will be hard to measure.
• Online video and digital marketing will grow as connectivity and processor speeds improve. This will provide enhanced presence on the web for companies looking to be found in universal search results.
• Online advertising dollars will be spent more efficiently with greater focus on ROI, measurability and analytics.
• Crowd sourcing will create some innovative, new business models.
• The mobile web will explode with new applications by IPhone, Bold and Google. The best ones will be those that bridge the gaps in search and make our lives easier. Our cell phone will be our favorite device as it will allow us to travel with our favorite shows, alarm clock and baby monitor. We are even going to use our “preferred device” for scanning bar codes and comparing prices online in “real” time.
• Permission-based marketing will continue to demand greater commitment to the customer and their needs.
• The green movement will slow but community involvement and event marketing will see a resurgence.
• Networking costs will be included in company budgets again. Boasting about global connections at cocktail parties will not be unusual as the trend for global connectivity will continue along with our basic human need for pen pals and sharing.

In short Charles Darwin sums up what is ahead quite succintly when he said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”.