Online advertising in U.S. will keep on growing even in an economic downturn, which forces marketers to reduce the overall ad spending.

According to a recent IDC study, “US Internet Advertising 2008-2012 Forecast and Analysis: Defying Economic Crisis”, the current economic recession will accelerate the transfer of marketing budgets from traditional to new media.

Internet advertising will increase about eight times faster than advertising at large between 2008 and 2012, and the revenue will double to $51.1 billion.

Moreover, the Internet will jump from the number five to the number two medium within five years, exceeding newspapers, cable TV and broadcast TV and second only to direct marketing, vnunet.com reported.

Video advertising is expected to be the biggest disruptor of online advertising in the next five years, attracting most of the new marketing dollars. Its revenue sevenfold from $500 million in 2007 to $3.8 billion in 2012.

IDC expected brand advertisers shifting significant amounts of budgets into video commercials, primarily from broadcast television and cable television.

"The size of the online video audience, and the time it spends watching video, is sure to increase as broadband penetration increases, connections become faster and more premium content becomes available," according to Karsten Weide, programme director for digital media and entertainment at IDC.

"Consumers are also starting to realise that, as opposed to TV, internet video lets them watch what they want, when they want, and increasingly where they want."

Search advertising, according to the research, will still be the one generating the most revenue over the forecast period in the U.S., vnunet.com reported.