Marketers poured more money into branded content in 2009 than ever before. A new study shows that total spending on branded content was over $1.8 million per company, with 51% spent on print publications, 27% on Internet media and 22% on categories such as video or audio, which were measured for the first time at the beginning of 2009. Even allowing for the addition of new categories, 2009 spending was double that of 2008, according to a study by ContentWise.

Advertisers seek to drive consumers to their websites as the Internet becomes a more important element in their marketing plans. As a result, web traffic and search results are increasingly regarded as measures of marketing success. New research confirms that magazine ads with URLs are more likely to drive readers to advertiser websites overall, as well as across a range of genres. Even if "drive to web" is not the goal of the advertising campaign, including a URL to boost web visits is a benefit most advertisers will appreciate, according to a study by Affinity.

The "lean-back" medium is now more "lean-in" than ever – thanks to a variety of technologies and people's growing desire to control their viewing experiences, on TV and online. The ways in which people learn about and ultimately decide to watch video on TV or the Internet are remarkably similar – with verbal word of mouth (in-person conversations or phone calls) scoring well above social media as a regularly used source, and TV ads and search engines also playing major roles. Television ads are the most important source for discovering new programs and deciding what to watch on TV (see table below), with verbal word of mouth coming in second for discovery and third for decision making (behind interactive program guides), according to a report by Knowledge Networks.

While people 65 and older still make up less than 10% of the active Internet universe, their numbers are on the rise. In the last five years, the number of seniors actively using the Internet has increased by more than 55%, from 11.3 million active users in November 2004 to 17.5 million in November 2009. Among people 65+, the growth of women in the last five years has outpaced the growth of men by 6 percentage points. Not only are more people 65 and older heading online, but they are also spending more time on the Web. Time spent on the Internet by seniors increased 11% in the last five years, from approximately 52 hours per month in November 2004 to just over 58 hours in 2009, according to a new study by NielsenWire Online.