• by Joe Mandese , February 7, 2007

The nation's leading advertising executives believe we are in a period of hyper accelerate change for the media and advertising world and that things are likely to speed up even more. Asked to characterize the rate of change during 2006, 80% of 207 executives responding to an American Advertising Federation poll on media investments, said the rate of change was even faster in 2006 than in 2005. More than half (58%) expect 2007 to be even faster, and 39% expect this year to be about as fast as 2006.

Asked what took them most by surprise during the past year, the greatest percentage of ad executives (77%) cited the "rush to Second Life," referring to the popular social network built around a virtual world. The next biggest surprises were: the "rise of YouTube" (61%), the popularization of "mash-ups" (51%), and newspapers moving increasingly to tabloid formats (50%).

By contrast, a majority of advertising executives were far less surprised by some other seemingly profound shifts, including: TV programs on the Internet (14%), mass adoption of text messaging (20%), the explosion of consumer content (35%).

Interestingly, the industry was split on Nielsen's development of a TV commercial ratings system, with 53% saying they "saw it coming," and 47% saying they were surprised.

Given the accelerated rate of change that took place last year, a slight majority (52%) said they are more likely to prepare for profound changes this year, though only 18% described themselves as "change champions."

While such change champions are most likely to invest in media innovation, 73% of all respondents said "one to 20 percent" of their budget is reserved for experimentation and new media properties.