With the continuous slowdown in the economy and rising percentage of unemployment, we are moving tentatively towards an unpredictable new year. Media firms, analysts and bloggers are all predicting a downward trend in the overall ad spend. Lets look at the status of the ad market along with some positive areas that we can count on.

Traditional media such as newspapers and magazines are seeing a definite decline with organizations cutting down on overall ad spending. Companies look towards digital media and online advertising for better benefits. The current economic situation is making things tough across all media, but newspaper revenues are falling more than in any other major medium, Even the former bulwark of newspaper revenues, classified advertising, is plummeting due to craigslist and other online alternatives, says Carol Krol, eMarketer senior analyst.

The recession in the U.S economy has hit the online ad world as well, but there are positive opportunities for the online publishers and ad networks. Marketers rely heavily on Internet ad formats such as search and e-mail. Even though markets predict a continuous but restrained growth of the Internet, online display ad pricing has declined in 2008 and has been predicted to decline further in 2009. Brand awareness and consumer connect of display ads are essential positive aspects that can’t be ignored. Marketers say that creative integration of search along with display ads will convert to good sales.

With consumers tightening their purse strings, the retail industry is forced to dole out attractive freebies and regular sales. It’s the same fate of e-commerce as well. The Internet is flooded with push deals and coupons. Many marketing professionals also feel that e-commerce will grow well despite recession. Forrester analyst Christopher Kelley says, “Consumers know that the Web is one of the places to get a good deal. It’s one of the top reasons people buy online. As people start to tighten their financial belts, they’re going to turn to the Web to find the best deals they can.

Efficient marketing during recession is the way to go. “It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times says marketing expert John Quelch.

Overall, our perspective is to go on a ’smart’ offensive, what this means is that competition is busy retreating, so going offensive will fetch high market share but the approach needs to be ’smart’ in terms of the focus areas, leveraging low hanging fruits, trying small and then scaling when proven and willing-ness to look away from the ‘herd’ effect. Right now there are lot of cheap ad buys available in good online properties, even search buys are cheaper than earlier but still a portfolio based prudent approach to media buy is required.