2012 closed out on a positive note for the ad industry: globally, ad spend increased 3.2 percent year-over-year to $557 billion, according to Nielsen’s quarterly Global AdView Pulse report. A strong third quarter, which saw growth of 4.3 percent, helped drive the annual uptick. Ad spend growth then receded to a more modest 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter.
All regions except Europe increased their ad spending in 2012. The Middle East/African market showed impressive growth of 14.6 percent for the year as the region’s economy stabilized. Egypt was part of that turnaround, registering a 20.4 percent increase in spending. Meanwhile, deep cuts to ad budgets continued in Europe, fueling a 5.3 percent decrease for the final quarter, yielding an annual decrease of 4.2 percent. Even economic powerhouse Germany reported a 1 percent dip in the fourth quarter, the second consecutive quarter the country reported a decline in advertising spend.
The Asian-Pacific market underperformed as well, as its annual increase in ad spend fell from 11.5 percent in 2011 to a mere 2.8 percent in 2012, propelled in part by China’s very slight gain of 1.9 percent for the year.
Ad spending in North America remained on an upward trajectory at the end of the year, climbing 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter. This helped the region report 4.6 percent growth for the full year.
Nielsen Global AdView Pulse measures ad spending for TV, newspapers, magazines, radio, outdoor, cinema and Internet display advertising. Ad spend is based mainly on published rate-cards. Some markets may exclude select media due to data availability.
The external data sources for the other countries included in the report are:
Argentina: IBOPE
Brazil: IBOPE
Croatia: Nielsen in association with Ipsos
Egypt: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
France: Yacast
Greece: Media Services
Hong Kong: admanGo
Japan: Nihon Daily Tsushinsha
Kuwait: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
Lebanon: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
Mexico: IBOPE
Pan-Arab Media: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
Portugal: Mediamonitor
Saudi Arabia: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
Spain: Arce Media
Switzerland: Nielsen in association with Media Focus
UAE: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)