Olympic Games to Deliver $3 Billion Boost to Global Adspend

LONDON, July 2: ZenithOptimedia expects the 2008 Olympic
Games to attract $3 billion in additional advertising expenditure next year,
almost $1 billion of which will be in China.

The U.S. Presidential election and the Euro 2008 football
championship will contribute another US$3 billion between them, the report
notes.

Global ad expenditure across all major media in 2008 will
hit $489.3 billion, a 6.5 percent gain on the previous year, above the 5.1
percent annual growth the market has averaged over the past ten years.
Television will account for 37.7 percent ($180.3 billion), and the Internet
will have an 8.6 percent share ($41.2 billion)

North America will remain the biggest ad market, with $196.7
billion, a 4.1 percent gain on 2007. Ad expenditures in Western Europe are set
to rise 4.4 percent to $112.9 billion. The Asia Pacific will see an 8.4 percent
growth in 2008, to $108.3 billion. Central and Eastern Europe, meanwhile, is
expected to post a 16.4 percent year-on-year increase to $31.1 billion. Latin
American ad spend will rise 6.9 percent to $22.8 billion. In Africa, the Middle
East and the rest of the world, ZenithOptimedia expects an 18 percent gain to
$17.5 billion.

ZenithOptimedia notes that it has reduced its forecasts for
the U.S. after continued weakness in the network TV and trade magazines
markets. Latin America is also down. Western Europe is expected to outperform
North America through 2009, driven in part by recoveries in Germany and the
U.K.

The fastest growing ad markets are in the Middle East and
Central and Eastern Europe, led by Qatar with a projected 214.7 percent
increase from 2006 to 2009, followed by Egypt (117.7 percent), the United Arab
Emirates (108.9 percent), Russia (108.3 percent) and Ukraine (100.5 percent).
Rounding out the top ten are Moldova, Romania, Belarus, the pan-Arab region and
Saudi Arabia.