Some Madison Avenue media directors are predicting strong growth for media - especially online - and greater integration, writes MediaPost. They also forecast that business activity will be strong and e-business technologies will begin to transform the way agencies plan and buy media. Integration will reach the point where "you may plan internet banners in order to get a TV buy, or you may plan print in order to get your out-of-home schedule of choice," Robin Donovan, a senior partner and media director at Bozell & Jacobs, Omaha, is quoted as saying.

Larry Kelly, SVP, director of media and research at Fogarty Klein Monroe, Houston, predicts that full-service agencies would adopt a "10 percent rule" for online, saying "all plans will have online either as a component or test."

In 2006, e-business methods for media buying and planning will accelerate, predicts O. Burtch Drake, president-CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, which encourages its members to adopt new transactional platforms - and the Ad-ID digital media tracking effort.

"E-biz for media will move from the talk state to the test stage," Drake said, also predicting that Ad-ID would be adopted by a "majority of television advertisers" in 2006.