It’s official. Interactive marketing is real. How do we know it’s real? Because real money is being spent. Forrester Research forecasts $25 billion in interactive marketing spending in 2009, with growth estimated to be over 100% by 2014.

The 2009 numbers show just how far internet marketing has come in the last few years. There is no doubt that spending on interactive marketing is going to grow by leaps and bounds over the next five years, but it’s silly to try and forecast how these trends will grow.  Forrester forecasts social media spending to be $3.113 billion in five years.  Such a precise number implies some sort of science behind the number.  While I’m sure the smart folks over at Forrester have very good reasons for their numbers, they are almost guaranteed to be very wrong.

Looking back five years shows how absurd a forecasting exercise like this is.  Think about 2004.  Google just turned in an impressive $3.1 Billion in revenue, but will grow another 600% by 2009.  Facebook is just being born (then known as thefacebook.com) but will dethrone the all popular Myspace in just a few years. Twitter won’t be invented for two more years.   These are just a few examples of the dramatic and unpredictable phenomena taking place online.

Marketing online in five years is sure to be different than today, but no one really knows what the future will look like (not even Forrester).

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