According to results of the 2008 eHoliday Study from Shop.org, 56.1% of online retailers expect their holiday sales to increase at least fifteen percent over last year, compared to 77.5% of retailers surveyed last year who expected their sales to grow more than 15 percent. Scott Silverman, Executive Director of Shop.org, says "...Retailers will be heavily promotional to attract shoppers on a budget, but have also invested in new site features to improve the online buying experience."

According to Shoppertrak's Mall National Retail Traffic Index (NRTI) measure, enclosed mall common area traffic was essentially flat for the first half of 2008 versus 2007, declining a modest 0.5 percent. In July, with the price of oil accelerating to an all-time high, enclosed mall traffic declined 3.4 percent versus the prior year period. There appears to be a strong reverse correlation between the price of oil and mall traffic, says the report. In August, as the price of oil started to decline, mall traffic's negative trend moderated.

According to a recent Yahoo! Green study, 77% of consumers describe themselves as "Green," actively living their lives conscious of their health and environment, and 57% have made a Green purchase in the past 6 months. But, concludes the study, the fact that not all green consumers are the same creates a great opportunity for advertisers to better understand the purchasing motivations of mainstream green consumers, one of the largest and fastest growing markets nationwide.

A deeper look at top advertisers in the Online TV and Radio segments of Broadcast, including impressions, ad sizes and delivery.

According to a recent report by the allen & gerritsen (a&g) audience intelligence department, 80% of online mothers in the US say most Americans have been encouraged to overextend themselves, while 58% think the average American is too greedy. Because moms manage the household (which means their behaviors drastically impact sales) and they teach and enforce family values (which means they are as influential in shaping our culture as is the media), a&g surveyed moms to understand just how the economy is affecting their purchase behaviors and economic outlook

According to a study from The Creative Group, 65% of marketing executives and 45% of ad execs think their firms don't take enough creative risks when developing marketing and advertising projects. Among marketing executives, only 33% said they take the "right" amount of risks, and a mere 1% said they take too many risks. Nearly two-thirds believe their firm either doesn't take enough risks or plays it much too safe when developing creative work for clients.

According to a Harris Interactive survey for RetailMeNot.com, 45% of US online adults plan to spend less money on gifts this holiday season than last because of the state of the economy, while one in five plan to spend significantly less. 89% of online adults think coupons are a great way to save money, and 35% of those who will be spending less money on gifts this holiday season will use coupons, the study found.

At the "Masters of Marketing" Conference by the Association of National Advertisers recently, 1,200 client-side marketers, media and creative agencies and others, were polled via handheld devices about their marketing mix, budgets, plans, and tactics throughout the event.

According to the "Golden Age of Youth" study from Viacom Brand Solutions International, marketers should target consumers based upon their engagement and participation in youth culture rather than on their chronological age, and consider the often-overlooked 25-34 age group a part of the youth market, VBSI said. Kevin Razvi, EVP and managing director of VBSI, said "... people are trying to stay younger for longer... 25-to-34 year-olds are continuing to consume music, gaming and the internet and are enjoying the pursuits of their younger years... we... need to rethink what 'youth' actually means and... (how to) approach this constantly …

About 80% of the user generated content on the web, including comments and questions is produced by 9% of users... the Most Frequent Contributors, says the report. About 65% of web users are passive readers who contribute content only occasionally. They account for only about 20% of content, depending on the medium. Another 9% of web users are pure lurkers, never contributing any content. And about 17% are community abstainers; they believe they never visit any community-related site on the web.