Despite a struggling economy, experts at Outsell Inc. predict that the amount of money spent on advertising and marketing in the United States will total $412.4 billion in 2008. According to the company’s third annual ad spending report, about $249.1 billion will be spent on advertising and the remaining $163.3 billion will be spent on marketing. However, the growth of the total advertising and marketing spend is only 3.9%, a lower rate compared to last years’ spending increase of 5.8%.

The report, which surveyed 1,088 U.S. Advertisers, focuses on the five main media types: online, print, events, TV/radio and others. Some of the key findings from the report are listed below.

• 61.8% of a company’s advertising/marketing budget is being spent on the company’s own website
• Online Advertising is the fastest-growing of all types of advertisement and is expected to grow by 12.3% in 2008
• More money is now spent on online advertising then on TV/radio/movie advertising

To view the complete report, see the link below.