Despite a failing economy, employment woes and countless other concerns, a key segment of Millennials, people born between 1980 and 1990, remain confident about what 2009 will have in store for them. According to an omnibus survey conducted by StrategyOne on behalf of Pepsi, four out of five Millennials are hopeful about the future as the New Year approaches, and nearly all surveyed (95%) agree that it is important for them to maintain a positive outlook on life.

According to a new report by FitchRatings, the company forecasts that the contraction in output among the major advanced economies will represent the steepest decline since the Second World War, with GDP in the U.S. to decline approximately 1.2%, while inflation is forecast to be 2.7%. Regarding the advertising environment, the Fitch media team is more cautious than most major advertising forecasts, none of which currently predict advertising to be nearly as weak as 2001.

According to a recent analysis of BIGresearch's SIMM database by Prosper Technologies, wide gaps exist between how ad dollars have been spent versus what consumers say works best when it comes to buying a car. The Prosper analysis and media allocation model utilizes the SIMM Survey of 17,231 consumers to determine "what" and "which" media forms are most influential to consumers for buying a car, the consumption of the media, and pricing of various measured media.

According to a new survey from Mediamark Research & Intelligence, 11.5% of the U.S. adult population are the key influencers of other people when it comes to word-of-mouth communications regarding personal finance. This segment of approximately 25.4 million adults, dubbed "Big Circle Influentials," are at par with the national average age for adults, and have only 4% higher household income than the national average of $65,500, but they score well above the national average for key financial and wealth indicators.

The 2008 Digital Future Project, conducted by the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, has identified several sobering trends in views about going online, particularly in adults' opinions about Internet use by children. Adults who said that the children in their households spend too much time using the Internet reached 25% of respondents, an increase for the third year in a row and the highest percentage yet reported.

Another index declining this year is the shrinking of America's leisure time, according to the latest results from The Harris Poll, tracking America's leisure time since 1973. The poll finds that The median number of leisure hours available each week dropped 20% in 2008, from 20 hours in 2007, to an all-time low of only 16 hours this year. This continues a trend which has seen America's median weekly leisure time shrink 10 hours from 26 hours per week in 1973.

According to a panel at the recent Wharton Marketing Conference, 2009 shapes up to be the most challenging year in more than a generation for luxury items such as high-end apparel and fragrances. According to Randy Kabat, executive vice president of marketing and advertising for Prada USA, roughly 50% of the firm's sales come from just 5% of its customers, Marketers' plans for targeting aspirational 16-year-olds spending a small fortune on the "it" handbag, and expanding rapidly into the new money hubs of Russia or the United Arab Emirates, are "out," while pampering the wealthiest and most loyal customers …

Nielsen Online reported that Microsoft's Xbox 360 garnered the largest share of online buzz among the top game consoles, with 41.6 percent of messages between November 1st and December 9th. Wii and PlayStation ranked about evenly at No. 2 and 3.

comScore reported its tracking of holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 37 days of the November - December 2008 holiday season. In addition, Compete, Inc. provides a additional perspective of the shopping traffic. For the holiday season through December 7, $15.63 billion has been spent online, essentially the same level compared to the corresponding days last year, says comScore. During the first week since Cyber Monday (December 1 - December 7), sales totaled $4.45 billion, up 7 percent versus year ago.

According to a recent Bloomberg report by Tim Mullaney, the deepening U.S. recession will cause worldwide advertising spending to shrink next year for the first time since 2001, collected from findings at ZenithOptimedia and Interpublic Group of Companies. Zenith said that ad spending will slip 0.2 percent to $490.5 billion in 2009, led by a 6.2 percent drop in the U.S.. In October, Zenith predicted the market would expand 4 percent next year, down from the 6 percent growth it forecast in June. The U.S. ad market is expected to shrink 3.8 percent this year, after it predicted …