We’ve seen it coming for years but 2010 will go down as the first year ever that advertisers spent more money online than on newspapers in the U.S.
I think the biggest reason this didn’t happen sooner is that it’s hard to spend that much money online.
Consumers have been spending more and more time online over the years to the point where today they spend as much time online as they do watching television and simultaneously leaving printed newspaper readership way behind.
Newspapers still have great local franchises and they will be a part of local advertising for many years to come both online and offline but we can’t ignore the value of online advertising, especially for local advertising.
As a marketer you should look at this chart and ask yourself whether you’ve adjusted your marketing efforts to match the dramatic change that has happened in the past few years. If not, now is the time to be building co-branded digital sites, microsites, landing pages, social sub-sites, mobile and e-promo pages with input from your dealers.
The technology is here.