Despite many industries' economic struggles in 2008, online marketing continued an upward trend of growth and demand and is expected to do the same in 2009.

Last year, rich media–particularly video–remained one of the highest growing and most effective online marketing tools. The New York Times even went so far to say that interactive marketing was virtually recession-proof¹.

A quick look at the numbers illustrates why this isn't hype. Video ad spending increased 81% in 2008² in attempts to get a slice of 129.5 million online video advertising viewers³. In 2009, spending is expected to increase 44.9%⁴ in hopes of reaching an estimated 144.1 million viewers⁵.

If you aren't yet integrating rich media on your site or aren't considering it as a priority for 2009, you may now be asking yourself why you aren't or are questioning whether it is actually effective. Here are some points to consider.