One in Four Ad Dollars Will be Spent in Alternative Media by 2012

Implications: Alternative media spending is growing rapidly despite the recession.  More important, because of the recession, most of this new spending will have to come from "traditional media."

Analysis: The question being posed is: Are big agencies and clients ignoring "alternative media"?

Clearly not.  Advertiser spending is migrating rapidly to these new media choices -- mainly at the expensive of traditional media.

The fact is, though, that many consumer segments are embracing the new options faster than big advertisers and agencies.

But one thing's for sure: Where consumers go, advertisers follow.

In the short term, this may cause frustration in the "richly diverse and innovative" vendor community.  ("We've built a better mousetrap--why can't they see that?")

The reasons are varied, including: a) big advertisers have a natural tendency to take a wait and see approach to all new media possibilities -- and big agencies won't invest (or divert) major resources until advertisers create the appropriate budgets; b) advertisers know and understand what they're doing already -- and if it's working, why rock the boat?; c) they have long-standing personal and business relationships with the media companies they already deal with; d) it takes time and people-power to evaluate, approve and create new forms of advertising -- and that has to happen on both the agency and client side; d) the diversity and innovation of vendors reinforces the tendency to wait and see -- why not sit back till the most powerful and effective alternative media forms emerge and dominate?; e) advertisers need to figure out not only how to create appropriate marketing messages based on the platform and when/where/how the message is delivered and received -- but also to capture and respond to the new datapoints generated by alternative media.

The shift may not be happening fast enough for some of the vendors in the mobile media community -- but it is happening.  By 2012, 25% of all media dollars are forecast to be spent in alternative media.