Year 2007 is shaping up to be much weaker for the overall media economy, with first quarter ad spending flat and media buyers seeing the rest of the year as not much better. Just last week, TNS Media Intelligence slashed its 2007 forecast to 1.7 percent growth from 2.6 percent.

But that seems not to be affecting out-of-home advertising. First-quarter spending grew by 8 percent, to $1.6 billion, reports the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, and nine of the top 10 ad categories saw gains over the same period a year ago, four recording double-digit increases.

The fastest-growing top 10 category was Communications, including cell phones, up 20 percent from $104.7 million spent during the first three months of 2006 to $128.8 million spent during the first quarter of this year.

“We think that’s due mainly to the rate of innovation in the telecommunications sector, with so many new products coming into market,” says Stephen Freitas, chief marketing officer for the OAAA. “They’re pushing new products and services.”

Another category that has grown significantly is Insurance and Real Estate, up 14.7 percent during the first quarter of this year versus last, from $141.1 million to $161.8 million.

The category’s been healthy for some time, but Freitas says the reason why has changed over the past couple of years.

“Because of Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, there was a lot more insurance advertising in the last year or so,” he says. “However, it’s combined with real estate, and the housing market is cooling, so now you’ve got a lot of real estate agents out there competing for clients.”

Overall, the top 10 categories were up 6.7 percent during the first quarter, a lower growth rate than the industry as a whole, indicating that smaller categories have seen even stronger spending growth.

The one top 10 category reporting a spending decline was Media and Advertising, which fell 9.6 percent year to year, from $142.6 million to $128.8 million.

Freitas cites cutbacks on spending by radio.

“The biggest factor we think is there’s some sizable down-spending in [the] radio piece,” he says. “It’s a bigger part of the category typically, so radio being down is the most notable.”