Nielsen 2012: Global Ad Spend Grows 3.2%

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.