Research company Nielsen presented its top advertising trends for 2010. It’s not a surprise that the leading trend is the ability to value activity that merges online and offline purchasing behavior, having in mind the fact that nowadays users have expanded options for how they consume content and how they interact with brands.

Nielsen data shows that "time spent on each of the three screens--TV, PC and mobile--is increasing. In particular, the consumption of video content is rising in all platforms."

Top advertising trends for 2010

1. Optimizing media convergence is a top priority.

2. New kinds of advertising will appear to take advantage of smartphones, making them ne advertising platforms.

3. More cross-media advertising campaigns will emerge.

4. Commercialization of social networking will rise.

5. More interesting and interactive online ads will be created.

The challenge standing in front of advertising mediums such as video (TV more than online video portals) is not only to require users to be interested in the advertised product but also to make them remember it when they are making a purchasing decision. Online advertising has already proven to be such a profitable model. Theoretically, consumers can be shown an ad and then perform the desired action, such as buying a product online.

Nielsen claims that for consumer packaged goods, "purchasing decisions in 2010 will be influenced by several factors such as brand innovation, retailer assortment, proliferation of store brands, and increasing healthy eating conscious". With the exception of healthy eating and eco-friendly technologies, technology industry won't be significantly different.

Large and well-known brands like Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft must continue with innovations (brand innovation). New firms that start now will have to fight the increased rivalry (retailer assortment). Companies like Dell will offer more services to support their hardware business (proliferation of store brands).

We’ll have to wait to estimate which advertising trends will appear to most efficient and cost-effective.

The biggest opportunity for advertising business is to make people actually like seeing advertising. It’s a fact that Internet users accept online ads as a part of web surfing, so it is certainly an opportunity for more interesting and creative online ad formats.