Spending on Alternative Media Jumps 22%†

Marketers Follow as Consumers' Broadband Use Surges

Advertising Age, March 26, 2008 — Spending on alternative media hit $73.43 billion in 2007, a 22% increase over the previous year, and will continue to grow, according to PQ Media's Alternative Media Forecast: 2008-2012, released today. The research firm tracked 18 digital and nontraditional segments, with a combined 16.1% of total advertising and marketing dollars in 2007, up from 7.9% in 2002, yielding a compound annual growth rate of 21.7%.

The forecast predicts a 20.2% increase over the next year, to a total of $88.24 billion, and a compounded annual growth rate of 17% for 2007-2012, reaching $160.82 billion. By then, alternative media will represent 26.6% of all advertising and marketing dollars.

Disney Acquires Web Site for Children

Aiming to solidify its position in online entertainment, the company acquired Club Penguin in a deal that could total $700 million.

New York Times, August 2, 2007 — Racing to solidify its dominant position in children’s entertainment on the Internet, the Walt Disney Company said Wednesday that it had acquired a subscription Web site aimed at preteenagers, Club Penguin, in a deal that could total $700 million.

Hasbro banking on “Transformers” hitting it big

Film based on hit toys, �sort of opens another chapter for us,� executive says

MSNBC, June 18, 2007 — Hasbro hopes the upcoming release of "Transformers" — based on the company's "robots in disguise" toys introduced in the 1980s — will herald a new era for the company that in the past few years has remade itself from a toy maker to an entertainment company.