Nielsen: Ad Spending Rising Globally

NEW YORK: Advertising spending is up 2.7 percent worldwide, totaling $266 billion in the first half of 2012, according to Nielsen’s Global AdView Pulse report, with notable gains in Internet ad spend.

Advertising budgets in Europe have shrunk, down 2.7 percent, but North America showed positive trends in the second quarter, ending the period with an increase of 2.4 percent over the prior year. The emerging markets of Latin America (up 6.9 percent) and the Middle East and Africa (up 21.1 percent) led the growth in the period. The Asia Pacific, meanwhile, saw growth of 2.3 percent.

Television advertising experienced a 3.1-percent gain in ad expenditures for the first half of 2012, after seeing a year-on-year increase of 2.8 percent in the first quarter. Television increased by 4 percent in North America, led by a 4.2-percent gain from the U.S. The Middle East and Africa saw significant increases in TV ad spending, of 30.1 percent during the first half of the year. This is due in part to Egypt’s advertising market rebounding from last year’s Arab Spring.

Spending on online advertising saw large gains, up 7.2 percent globally. This was the biggest increase reported for all of the media types.

Overall, television’s share of the spend was 61.4 percent, with Internet representing just 2.6 percent.