Big-name brands will embrace new technolo- gies---adjusting budgets in some surprising ways. And any entrepreneur or smaller business can use national brand and service marketing tactics, to reach your own audience in the coming year.

Increasingly by 2009---you can expect major marketing trends to include a shift from tradi- tional to "alternative media"---though news- papers and magazines, radio and TV remain marketing staples.

The big growth in business spending is moving money into online advertising, mobile, and other out-of-home venues. Many marketers are find- ing alternative media and "innovative ad space" ---the best way to reach audiences effectively, to yield a measurable ROI.

A communications industry forecast published by Veronis Suhler Stevenson predicted alterna- tive advertising spending will increase more than 23 percent from 2006 to 2011, while traditional advertising will have a compound annual growth rate of just over 1 percent.

Interactive marketing spending will more than triple over the next five years, reaching $61 bil- lion by 2012, according to Forrester Research.

To put this into context, interactive marketing, which currently accounts for just 8 percent of all ad spending, will increase to 18 percent of marketers' total advertising budgets in five years.

Those interactives encompass live e-mail and search marketing, online video ads, social media, and mobile marketing. These mediums are getting hotter, as savvy consumers, who are more comfortable using personal comput- ing handsets---spend for advantage in communications and access to media.

Other emerging channels, including game mar- keting, podcasts and RSS feeds, will claim increasingly larger shares of marketers' budgets. There's also more off-line support for online campaigns and here's where the value of advertising synergy hits home.

In 2008 and beyond, the trend toward using off-line media to drive customers to the web will continue and pick up speed. Traditional media are increasingly relied on---to support new e-interactive campaigns.

Display advertising in particular, will be the work- horse that Forrester Research predicts will reach $14 billion by 2012.

TV is another traditional advertising medium that will increasingly be used to pique consumer in- terest and point prospects to a website where they can find more in-depth information.