
Retail sales will dip this year, but that hasn’t stopped retailers from plowing more money into marketing. Retail ad expenditures are up 9% and their promotions spend is up 16.6%. This 60-page report, “U.S. Retailing: Sales, Marketing and the Move to Online,” details game-changing shifts. While traditional advertising is forecast to increase 5% over the next five years, promotions and non-ad marketing will increase at five times that rate. And the biggest gainer of all, of course, will be interactive marketing. The report includes an appendix that details online and offline marketing expenditure trends for 34 individual business categories.