• by Laurie Petersen , September 13, 2006

Marketing services spending is expected to hit $455.72 billion by 2010, making it the largest and fastest-growing sector in the latest Communications Industry Forecast published by Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Spending on direct response media, event marketing and custom publishing is fueling the growth.

Total media and communications spending is forecast to rise 7.2 percent in 2006 to $961.9 billion, and to reach $1.236 trillion by 2010.

The spending trends reflect a healthy economy, continued development of online and mobile content, and better measurement of ROI and engagement, making marketers more comfortable increasing their spending levels.

It also reflects the reality that media is increasingly fragmented, and core audiences are becoming harder to reach.

"There are more attempts to try to reach that 18- to-34-year-old with alternative marketing," says Dr. Leo Kivijarv, vice president of research for PQ Media, which conducted the study with VSS.

The ability to do overnight ROI analysis on marketing tactics such as sampling is also prompting more marketers to spend on these methods, he adds.

Marketing services was also the largest and fastest-growing sector in 2005 at $336.9 billion--up 9.1 percent from 2004.