National advertisers and consumers are confident that 2010 is going to be a good year, according to two recent surveys.

According to the Starcom MediaVest Group ‘Media Futures Survey’ conducted by Roy Morgan, national advertisers have predicted growth in main media advertising expenditure of around 5.3% next year, compared to an average contraction of the domestic advertising market of 2.4% in 2009.

National media executives are also more upbeat about the advertising industry with an average growth rate of 4.6% in above the line media expenditure, up from an expected growth rate of 1% predicted for 2009.

Respondents are drawn from a representative sample of Australia’s top 450 national advertisers and senior media executives from free-to-air television, subscription television, newspapers, radio, internet, magazines, out-of-home and cinema.

“It’s pleasing to see that advertisers have turned around from a mood of caution and uncertainty so quickly and that 2010 is set to return to strong growth for most sectors of the media. That said, the predicted growth would still see mainstream ad budgets below the levels of 2008,” Starcom MediaVest Group CEO John Sintras said.

Additionally, a second Roy Morgan survey has found that an increasing number of Australians (66%), and New Zealanders (73%) expect 2010 will be ‘better’ than 2009 – the highest numbers since 2004.

“The results from this latest Roy Morgan Survey conducted in association with the Gallup International Association suggest that both Australians and New Zealanders are convinced that the worst of the recent GFC is now behind us. Rising numbers of Australians and New Zealanders expect 2010 to be ‘a year of economic prosperity,” explained Roy Morgan Research chairman Gary Morgan.

These reports come as News Ltd chairman John Hartigan criticised the research company for being the mastermind of the scuttling of The Newspaper Works’ attempts to set up a rival measurement of newspaper readership statistics.