Total ad spending is expected to increase 8.6 percent this year, to $333.60 billion, and another 8.6 percent in 2007, according to Schonfeld & Associates' Advertising Ratios & Budgets report issued last month, BtoB reports (via MediaBuyerPlanner). The report is more optimistic than reports issued by Universal McCann - which recently lowered ad growth projection for this year to a 5.6 percent increase - and from TNS Media Intelligence, which lowered its forecast to a 4.9 percent increase last month. Both of those reports, however, revised upward their projections for online ad spending.

According to the Schonfeld report, advertisers with the highest ad-to-sales ratio (total ad spending as a percentage of net sales) this year will be consumer products, spending 9.6 percent of total net sales on advertising. Within that category, the highest projected ad-to-sales ratio will be wood household furniture (18.4 percent), distilled and blended liquor (16.8 percent) and food and kindred products (11.9 percent).

Next year, automotive is expected to be the highest-spending industry, increasing 5.3 percent, followed by pharmaceutical with a 10.5 percent increase, driven in large part by direct-to-consumer advertising.