The American Advertising Federation has released Survey of Industry Leaders on Advertising Trends 2005, which reveals surprising attitudes among leading advertising industry executives regarding current media challenges. The survey compiled the responses of 75 industry leaders who represent all sectors of the industry.

For example, blogs, podcasts and Web-enabled cell phones are seen as relatively weak advertising vehicles. Of all nontraditional ad tactics, the single-sponsor buyout of media, e.g. Target and The New Yorker, was rated the most effective.

Traditional advertising challenges remain major industry concerns, such as demonstrating ROI, creating ideas that break through the clutter and integrating creative across media channels.

However, new technologies that threaten traditional ads and the impact of new media on consumer attitudes and behavior are among the top five most important business challenges. Fifty-eight percent of ad execs have already changed or expect to change their ad buys in response to DVRs, and many maintain that such technology will have a significant impact on the 30-second spot.

Additional findings include the following:

• 84 percent of industr leaders report satisfaction with balancing their personal and professional lives.
• They also perceive careers in advertising to be more demanding than in other sectors.
• The majority of industry leaders (81 percent) cite mentorship as important to their personal career success, and 96 percent choose to mentor young professionals.
• The relative importance of reaching multicultural audiences has increased over the past year, and the perceived difficulty of targeting/reaching these audiences has mostly decreased.
• The “priority gap” between Hispanic consumers and other segments is narrowing.
• Top brands are (in order) Coca-Cola, Apple, Nike, Google and a tie between FedEx and BMW.
• The top campaigns of the year were (in order) Apple iPod, Burger King, Target, Mini Cooper and a three-way tie for Hewlett-Packard, UPS and Verizon.
• Most respected industry leaders include Mary Wells Lawrence, David Ogilvy, Renetta McCann, Leo Burnett and Bill Bernbach.
• Industry leaders do display a bullish attitude on the state of the advertising economy, with 60 percent stating the industry is in recovery.
• The most important factor in achieving success in the industry is “integrity.”

Download: AAF Survey of Industry Leaders on Advertising Trends 2005.