Global Ad Spend from Nielsen

Nielsen Media Research (International) has predicted an overall global ad spend recovery for the second half of 2002. In a study released recently, Nielsen has detailed how spend in the world's 14 key ad markets fell by 5 percent during 2001, with a modest total upturn now due by the end of 2002.

Nielsen has confidently projected spend in the world's developed countries to rise slightly in the second half of 2002. This should offset a first-half decline to yield essentially zero growth for the year in these markets. However, the research is less pessimistic about spend in emerging countries, including China (one of the world's fastest-growing ad economies). The report has suggested that spend here will grow by an estimated 10 percent for the year. The net overall effect could that the world's ad spend could grow by about 2 percent in 2002.

'What we're seeing is what I like to call the yin-and-yang effect,' said Ian Garland, managing director of product marketing and development for Nielsen Media Research (International). 'There are really two distinct worlds - developed and emerging - that shape the global advertising economy. Although the United States is by far the world's largest ad market, what happens here can't always be taken as a proxy for global advertising on the whole.'

The overall decline in the developed countries masks the robust growth that the emerging markets saw in 2001. While Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and US saw spending shrink by a collective 7 percent, spending in the emerging markets (China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Thailand) grew in total by about 15 percent.

'We found that ad spending in the emerging markets was surprisingly buoyant, led by a sizeable increase in China. These markets shrugged off the effect of September 11, which significantly dampened ad spending in the West, and actually grew at their most robust rate in the final quarter of last year,' said Garland.

China has indeed emerged as a major global force in advertising, especially within the last year. Growing at more than 15 percent in 2001, China moved from 10th place among the world's largest advertising economies in 2000 to finish last year in a virtual tie with Germany and the United Kingdom for the number three spot, behind the United States and Japan. Its surging ad growth appears to be the product of growing TV advertising by local companies.

Interestingly, of the top eight product categories advertised in China in 2001, five were in the area of 'personal care,' including such products as tonics and vitamins, over-the-counter medicines, and hair shampoos and conditioners. Personal-care categories racked up the biggest increases in advertising spend worldwide in fact for 2001. Advertising for cosmetics and toiletries grew 8 percent, and healthcare advertising rose 6 percent, representing the two fastest-growing categories. Among the world's declining ad categories, Nielsen found that tobacco showed the biggest dip last year (down 27 percent) followed closely by the telecommunications sector (down 26 percent). Not surprisingly, lower spending in the developed economies was largely to blame for the fall-off in these areas.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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