According to analysts at Barclays Capital, ad forecasts for most media have been raised, including a strong boost in radio expectation, and local TV has moved into double digits. Barclays estimates that total 2010 U.S. advertising will grow 5.5% year-over-year in 2010 vs. prior estimate for +3.5% year-over-year. The largest source of category upside to the prior estimates was automotive and political TV advertising, particularly in the back half of 2010.

According to a report based on the Pew Research Center's public opinion surveys and analysis of 2008 U.S. Census Bureau data, a record 49 million Americans, or 16.1% of the total U.S. population, lived in a family household that contained at least two adult generations or a grandparent and at least one other generation. In 1940, about a quarter of the population lived in an extended family household one; by 1980, just 12% did, says the study.

Findings from a study conducted by Ipsos Marketing, Consumer Goods, show that, while store brands have built their foundation on distinguishing themselves as a good value in terms of low cost, consumers believe store brands provide much more than that. At least 80% of global consumers indicated that store brands are the same as or better than national brands on meeting their needs, offering convenience, being good for their families, caring about the environment and exuding trust.

According to a recent comScore study or U.S. Online TV viewership, when cross-platform viewers were asked about their motivations for consuming a portion of their TV content online, freedom in time and space emerged as primary motivators. 75% of these viewers selected "online" over "TV" because they were able to watch the show wherever they wanted, while 74% selected online because they were able to watch the show on their own time. They also preferred online TV viewing for the ability to stop and play shows when they wanted, and less interference from commercials. TV fared substantially better than …

According to Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) in the first quarter of 2010, 85 magazines posted an increase in ad pages, compared to 15 magazines during the same period in 2009. One hundred and one magazines registered PIB revenue gains in Q1, versus 28 titles in the same period of last year. Ellen Oppenheim, Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Magazine Publishers of America, said "The picture was brighter with an increase in major categories posting ad page and revenue growth, despite softness overall...

New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group found that 24% of all households have a television connected to the Internet. These connections vary from connecting through a video game system, a Blu-Ray player, or the TV set itself. While Internet connectivity has become a common built-in feature in many products, consumers are just beginning to use this feature to watch video from the Internet.

35% of Americans say that they have chosen not to purchase a certain brand because they find the ads distasteful and an additional 22% say they not done this, but have thought of doing so. 43% say they have never done this. 28% of Americans say they have chosen to not purchase a brand because they did not like the spokesperson it used.

According to The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), behaviorally-targeted advertising in 2009 secured an average of 2.68 times as much revenue per ad as non-targeted "run of network" advertising. The study also found that behaviorally-targeted advertising is more than twice as effective at converting users who click on the ads into buyers (6.8% conversion vs. 2.8% for run-of-network ads), and that behavioral advertising accounted for approximately 18% of advertising revenue.

According to the second year of an Opinion Research Corporation consumer preference survey sponsored by Adfusion, consumers are more likely to read and act upon online advertising than they were a year ago. For the second year, consumers say articles that include brand information is the type of online advertising they're most likely to read and act upon, compared to banner ads, pop-up ads, email offers or sponsored links.

According to new data from Javelin Strategy Research, in the past few years, card networks have changed their prepaid and gift focus as core, rather than emerging, products. The global economic downturn has furthered this paradigm shift, with pay?now and pay?before products gaining increasing prominence as credit markets have tightened. Nevertheless, in 2009, the combined use of prepaid and gift cards shows a 5 percentage point decline from 66% to 61% of consumers, reflecting a decrease of 11 million consumers. With unemployment up to 9.7% as the nation officially enters its third year of recession in 2010, U.S. consumers …