Digital Branding Overtaking Direct Marketing in 2012 As the world of online on are edging out more .

Studies show that ad if branding companies marketing evolves, brand recognition and social interacti traditional forms of advertising such as direct marketing spend in 2012 may double in the field of digital branding can convince marketers that results are real.

Los Angeles, CA, April 10, 2012 -- Internet advertising has become the fastest g rowing area of ad spend for both on and offline companies. While the largest per centage of online advertising has traditionally been in the realm of direct resp onse, digital branding is poised to overtake that vertical in 2012, according to a State of the Industry Survey. In fact, the survey reveals that brand advertis ing will represent nearly 60 percent of digital ad spend by mid to large sized c ompanies in the coming year, as 60% of marketers expect to divert funds from dir ect response to digital branding initiatives. 64% of marketers not only plan to increase their online brand advertising budget s in 2012, but 22 percent say they will increase spending by more than 20 percen t. The top three verticals of spend include mobile, where 69% of marketers have indicated an intent to expand; social, attracting 63% of marketers; and video ad vertising, which is expected to increase by 59% of marketers surveyed. "Digital branding is the NOW of online advertising," says Byron Wycoff, a digita l media and marketing business expert specializing in positioning brands for rap id growth. "We are seeing more and more clients backing away from direct respons e and turning to social media for brand recognition." Byron Wycoff runs the team of media experts, creatives, tech heads and analysts who make up the Media Brand project - a company dedicated to evolving with the d igital landscape. "We focus on current trends and technologies to capture new op portunities as they emerge," says Wycoff, adding, "We love what we do - and we d o it well!" The main obstacle digital brand marketers confront daily is lack of access to qu ality metrics. nearly 7 out of 10 marketers surveyed say they would spend more o f their advertising budget on online brand advertising if they only had improved clarity around the actual return on investment for digital branding. Unfortunately, those same marketers' confidence in the companies they hire is lo w. Only 6 percent of brands and 16 percent of agencies surveyed said they "stron gly believe" digital branding companies' claims that they can reach the desired audience. "You have to show results," says Wycoff. "Understanding each individual client's needs and expectations is key." For many brands, increased sales is proof enoug h that digital branding works. For those with less specific goals, such as inter action at the social level, complicated metrics must be broken down into clearly designated achievements. Reports should consist of real-time data compared to market and client specific benchmarks, with focus on just a few metrics at a time to prevent data "overload ". Third party brand ad effectiveness studies can be used to verify the audience reach as well as campaign impact, to encourage emerging brands to take direct o wnership of their branding investment and continue to allocate funds to digital media. Contact : Byron Wycoff Media Brand Project Los Angeles, CA 90064

858.366.4396 info@mediabrandproject.com http://mediabrandproject.com/