Global ad revenue grew to $557BN in 2012

2012 closed out on a positive note for the ad industry: globally, ad spend increased 3.2% year-on-year to $557 billion, according to Nielsen's quarterly Global AdView Pulse report.

In addition, all regions except Europe increased their ad spending in 2012, led by the Middle East and Africa, and North America.

A strong third quarter, which saw growth of 4.3%, helped drive the annual uptick, according to the report. Ad spend growth then receded to a more modest 2.5% in the fourth quarter.

The Middle East/African market showed what Nielsen called "impressive growth" of 14.6% for the year as the region's economy stabilised. Egypt was part of that turnaround, registering a 20.4% increase in spending. And, ad spending in North America remained on an upward trajectory at the end of the year, climbing 3.1% in the fourth quarter. This helped the region report 4.6% growth for the full year.

The story was different in Europe, where deep cuts to ad budgets continued. That fuelled a 5.3% decrease for the final quarter, yielding an annual decrease of 4.2%.

"Even economic powerhouse Germany reported a 1% dip in the fourth quarter, the second consecutive quarter the country reported a decline in advertising spend," said the report.

The Asian-Pacific market underperformed as well, as its annual increase in ad spend fell from 11.5% in 2011 to a mere 2.8% in 2012, propelled in part by China's very slight gain of 1.9% for the year.

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