According to Nielsen’s quarterly Global AdView Pulse report, advertisers spent less on automotive advertising in the first half of the year than they did in 2012. Auto ad spend decreased by 3.1 percent in the first six months of 2013, but maintained a 9.2 percent share of ad spend. Ad budgets in financial services and entertainment took hits of 1.7 and 1.2 percent for the year to date, now accounting for 6.3 percent and 13 percent of total ad spend for the period, respectively.

Health care ad spending began to recover in the first half of 2013, as expenditures grew 2.5 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) macro sector, which has been the long-standing leader among the other macro sectors, held 21.3 percent share of ad spend, bolstered by a 5.7 percent year-over-year increase in ad spend.

“We see spending across media types that own more market share becoming more conservative than previous quarters and ad spend budgets on emerging ad platforms increasing their budgets more and more,” said Randall Beard, global head, Advertiser Solutions for Nielsen. “We’re also seeing some big-spending advertisers like those in the auto and financial categories reducing their spending in the face of slower than expected economic growth. The balance between advertisers within some sectors, media types and regions cutting back, while other’s budgets increase produced a relatively flat growth pattern of 2.8 percent globally.”

The industry and services macro sector was also worthy of an honorable mention for the period with growth of 7.2 percent. This macro sector, which includes the business services, property, institutions, and power and water categories, maintains an 11.3 percent share of ad spend.