Historically, ad budgets are one of the first things to get cut during a recession. These folks predict that traditional advertising will get cut (t.v., print, radio), but online advertising —particularly social media — will weather the storm.
Then I read this article on how web advertising was up 27% in 2007. The analysts at IDC are expecting online advertising to weather any economic downturns as well:
IDC analyst Karsten Weide said businesses affected by the slowing U.S. economy will slash other advertising budgets before paring their online campaigns. “We think there will be some effect on ad spending overall, but we think online ad spending will almost be unaffected even if there’s a depression,” he said.