That was one of the findings in AICP’s 7th annual Survey of the Commercial Production Industry that give members a sense of changes and challenges ahead.

AICP members account for 85 percent of all commercials aired nationally. The AICP/Midwest chapter has 22 general members and 10 associate members.

“The data collected offers a detailed picture of how and where the billions of dollars in commercial production activity were spent in 2008," said Matt Miller, New York-based AICP president/CEO, noting that “these numbers will be quite different when we field 2009 data.”

One of the significant findings was that two-thirds of AICP member companies produced content outside of the traditional commercial in the past year, or “one in six shoot days to projects such as web films, product integration pieces, and mobile content,” Miller noted.

“We expect this figure to grow, as evidenced by this data and the surge of interest in the AICP Next Awards."

Some of the study highlights:

AICP members spent about $2.51 billion in direct production expenditures in 2008: $2.16 billion was spent in the U.S. and $352 million spent overseas.

Most of the expenditure, or $2.42 billion, was in live action and $94 million in in-house digital production.

Commercial producers are deeply involved in creating nontraditional advertising: Nearly seven in ten (66 percent of members) produced “nontraditional advertising projects” in 2008.

Internet or broadband viral was the most common format, followed by branded entertainment. Visual effects and animation accounted for 26 percent, graphic design, 21 percent.

Commercial producers anticipate swift growth in projects for new and emerging media channels: At present, producers estimate that about 24 percent of their billings come from nontraditional projects; by 2013, it will be 40 percent.

A trend towards domestic filming activity and sharp drop in overseas work: 88 percent of all reported shoot days took place domestically and only 12 percent abroad—a decrease from the 23 percent of shoot days overseas in 2005, and the lowest ratio for shoot days overseas since this survey’s inception in 2002.

Southern California is still the most popular location: Just below half, or 48 percent of all shoot days in the U.S. and overseas, took place in Southern California; 45 percent in L.A. County. New York was a distant second with 15 percent, a ratio that’s largely unchanged over the survey’s history.

Canada declined as Latin America ascended to top international location: In 2008, Central/South America remained the most frequent non-U.S. location for shoots, with 5 percent of all shoot days (and 37 percent of all foreign shoot days—up from 26 percent in 2006).

It led Canada, which was the most popular international destination for shoot days prior to 2007. Canada (largely Vancouver) declined from 24 percent of foreign shooting in 2002 to 14 percent by 2008.

The survey was conducted by Goodwin Simon Strategic Research.