Global ad spend up, but down in N. America, Europe: Nielsen

October 3, 2011 by Dave Haynes

Nielsen’s quarterly Global AdView Pulse report, released today, says global ad spend in Q2 of this year was up 5.7%, but it sank in the big markets of North American and Europe.

Nielsen says ad revenue dropped in Q2 in 16 out of 36 global markets – the first big decline since the Q3 2009 report,   when ad spend fell in more than half the markets monitored. You may recall that’s when the recession really kicked in.

“Compared to the 8.9 percent growth rate in the first quarter of the year, there was definitely some slowdown,” says  Randall Beard, Global Head of Advertiser Solutions for Nielsen. “But, based on the global economy and the financial problems many countries have experienced, a 5.7 percent increase for quarterly year-on-year global ad spend is still great news.”

Global advertising in Q2 totaled USD127 billion (mainly based on published rate cards and four major media types), and the first half of 2011 closed with a +7.2 percent growth over the same period in 2010.

Declines in ad spending for the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) category in Europe and North America, and the continued decline of newspaper ads, also contributed to slower growth in these regions. However, in the USA, the world’s largest ad market, these declines were off-set by increases in the automotive, insurance and financial service categories, which contributed to 3.1 percent overall growth in both the US and North America as a whole.

FMCG advertising posted its lowest quarterly growth since the Q1 2009 Pulse report: 4 percent globally with notable declines of -3.6 percent in Europe and -3.0 percent in North America. The decline in FMCG ad spend was particularly surprising as the Easter holiday, traditionally a key occasion for FMCG and confectionary advertising in Europe and North America, took place in late April this year, which should have pushed more ad revenue to the beginning of Q2, noted Beard. Within FMCG, cosmetics and toiletries posted the most robust growth of 6.9 percent and accounted for nearly one in every ten dollars spent globally.