“While Europe’s challenging economic conditions in the second half of 2011 bought renewed vulnerability and fragility to consumers and financial markets globally, some of the most positive news last quarter came from the world’s two largest economies—the U.S. and China—where confidence rebounded to Q1 2011 levels,” said Dr. Venkatesh Bala, Chief Economist at The Cambridge Group, a part of Nielsen. “Buoyant domestic consumption also maintained confidence levels in the large emerging economies of India, Indonesia and Brazil. However, slowing GDP growth within emerging economies and inflationary pressures would suggest some degree of caution for the year ahead.”

The Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions, established in 2005, tracks consumer confidence, major concerns and spending intentions among more than 28,000 Internet consumers in 56 countries. Consumer confidence levels above and below a baseline of 100 indicate degrees of optimism and pessimism.

Personal finances are improved, but spending is still restrained

More than half (52%) of global online consumers described their personal finances for 2012 as excellent/good, up from 50 percent in Q3 2011, but 65 percent indicated it is not a good time to buy, up one percent from the previous quarter.

“Overall, consumer discretionary spending will remain restrained and cautious in the first half of 2012,” said Dr. Bala. “Despite consumers becoming more confident about their personal finances for the year ahead, there is still a reluctance to spend, especially in the West; rising tensions in the Middle East and their impact on gasoline prices could further compound global consumer concerns and spending plans,” added Dr. Bala.

Consumer concern for the economy increased as a top fear among 18 percent of global respondents—an increase of six points from last quarter, which resulted in nearly two-thirds (64%) of consumers around the world indicating they believe they are in a recession, up from 62 percent last quarter. A growing number of online respondents in Asia Pacific (53%), Europe (74%), Middle East/Africa (74%) and Latin America (47%) indicated they believe they are in a recession. And while 86 percent of North Americans feel they are in a recession, it was the only region to report an improvement from 88 percent in third quarter.

• For more detail and insight, download Nielsen’s Q4 2011 Consumer Confidence report.

TV sports advertising is dominated by a few big spenders, with the top 10 — led by AT&T, Bud Light, Verizon Wireless, McDonald’s and DIRECTV—accounting for roughly a quarter (26%) of the total spend during that time period.

The increase in TV ad spend mirrors a similar increase in the amount of live TV sports content available on TV and cable. There were more than 42,500 hours of live sporting events on national broadcast and cable TV in 2011, a five percent increase over 2010.

• For more insights on sports and media, download Nielsen’s State of the Media: Year in Sports.

While Internet usage is moving toward maturity and online activities are ingrained in consumers’ everyday lives, a new dimension is rapidly expanding—that of Internet-capable mobile devices, including smartphones, tablet computers, eBook readers, connected games devices or other hybrid forms likely to emerge in the near future. The upcoming year’s anticipated surge of mobile device ownership, particularly smartphones, will have a profound impact on the digital behavior of Hong Kong consumers.

Mobile Application – The Rising Trend
Almost nine-in-ten (86%) Hong Kong digital consumers who have accessed the Internet via their mobile phones have downloaded an app (application) to their phones. And following the footprint of smartphones, tablets are another potential game changer, but the larger screen size is attracting a slightly different pattern of behavior.

On-demand, anytime, anywhere access to the Internet is also impacting social media use, which has revolutionized the way consumers communicate, share information, entertain themselves and others, socialize, form relationships and source information. Social media has provided more customer touch points, more methods of content and communication distribution and more information about customers and their preferences.

For more detail and insight, download Nielsen’s Hong Kong Digital Behavior Insights report.

Key findings:

• The majority of 25-34 and 18-24 year olds now own smartphones (64% and 53% respectively);
• The majority of smartphone owners (62%) have downloaded apps on their devices and games are the top application category used in the past 30 days;
• The number of smartphone subscribers using the mobile Internet has grown 45 percent since 2010;
• 87 percent of app downloaders (those who have downloaded an app in the past 30 days) have used deal-of-the-day websites like Groupon or Living Social;
• Younger groups text the most. In Q3, teens 13-17 sent and received the most text messages (an average of 3,417 each month).

This report draws from a broad range of Nielsen data sources, including: Nielsen’s in-depth monthly surveys of mobile consumers (more than 300,000 consumers surveyed each year); Device metering data from the iOS and Android smartphones of thousands of consumers who have volunteered to be a part of our research panel; detailed, monthly analysis of the cellphone bills for 65,000 lines in the U.S., again, thanks to volunteer panelists.

For more, download State of the Media: The Mobile Media Report Q3 2011.

Thirteen of the 21 countries have seen volumes decreasing with only Belgium, Norway and Turkey posting healthy volume growths. Growth is still generated in the main by price inflation: UK, Finland, Hungary, Denmark, Portugal, Sweden, Czech Republic and Italy completely rely on price to produce any growth.

For more country-by-country insight and a look at consumer confidence, download Nielsen’s European Growth Reporter Q3 2011.

Middle India, a region made up of approximately 400 towns each with a population of 1-10 Lac, are home to 100 million Indians and today constitute up to 20 percent of the country’s FMCG consumption. In fact, only the metros and Middle India have outpaced the all-India growth story in the last eight years. Even today, Middle India leads the pack across urban and rural segments for FMCG value growth rates.

Although some companies have partially penetrated the Middle India market, many tend to overlook smaller towns, ignoring the fact that these markets are perhaps easier to penetrate due to relatively sparse competition. Considering the expected growth of population in this area, rise in incomes and aspirations and the expected influx of people from even smaller towns to Middle India, this market is expected to create huge opportunities for marketers in the coming few years.

Why do Middle India cities matter?
These cities are ready to behave like the metros of tomorrow. Of the total INR 1.4 Trillion (280 Billion USD) in FMCG sales in 2010, goods worth about INR 287 Billion (5.74 Billion USD) were consumed by the Middle India population. This number makes up more than 20 percent of the overall FMCG sales, and 30 percent of the urban FMCG sales.

Middle India is also home to 30 percent of all urban stores, comprising over 900,000 million stores today. In addition to this, the annual per capita FMCG consumption of Middle India towns touched INR 2,800 (56 USD), which exceeded the national average by INR 1,600 (32 USD). This is a significant achievement for these smaller towns, considering the fact that the metros breached the INR 2,800 (56 USD) mark as recently as 2009.

Strong and vast market market potential
Out of 81 FMCG categories tracked by Nielsen, 49 product categories across personal care, over-the-counter drugs, household care, and food outgrew the all-India rate. Over 30 categories saw growth rates faster than 1.15 times the all-India rate. The top five fastest growing categories like diapers, scourers, liquid toilet soaps, acne preparations and air fresheners, which fared strongly in the past year, performed even better in 2011, indicating continued possibility of robust growth in the near future.

Interestingly, the focus on hygiene, health, personal grooming and convenience seems to be driving the rapid growth in these towns. Middle India is also accepting evolved categories like breakfast cereals, air fresheners, acne preparations, and liquid toilet soaps. The metros took on to many of these categories in a big way just a few years ago and Middle India does not want to be left out.

These developments bode well for FMCG companies, especially in light of the fact that this market is still in a nascent stage, and is expected to grow substantially in the next five years. The rise in demand for consumer products and relatively lower penetration of FMCG companies in these towns means that competition is not as fierce in these towns as would be in larger metros. A few major players with adequate capital and wide distribution networks are already cashing in on the opportunity. The annual turnover of the top ten FMCG players from the Middle India segment rose more than 42 percent by INR 35.8 Billion (716 Million USD) in just two years between 2009 and 2011.

For more detail and insight, download Nielsen’s Managing the Middle India Gold Rush report.

To track the evolution of the store circular, one need only follow the smudge. A Nielsen survey of 11,000 shoppers found that roughly 60 percent of consumers look at printed circulars at least once a week, but today’s fingerprints are increasingly likely to be found on tablet and smartphone screens as opposed to the pages of paper circulars.

Retailer e-mails are just as likely to reach consumers as the paper circular, and millenials in particular are increasingly likely to view a store’s website on a PC, and are more likely than other demographics to use a social media website or smartphone as an alternative to the paper circular.

While a full 70 percent of shoppers have expressed a desire to have their circulars delivered digitally in some form – via e-mail or over the web – in total only 18 percent of shoppers have ever used a smartphone to determine what’s available in-store and only 33 percent have accessed that information on a tablet device. In contrast, 90 percent of shoppers still want paper delivery. Thus, the transition to digital circulars is expected to be gradual, a gentle migration that will accelerate in proportion with both shoppers’ and retailers’ level of comfort with electronic platforms.

For more information, download the Evolution of Circulars (Q4 2011) report, and watch the accompanying webinar.

With the face of the United States changing, the attitudes and behaviors of women from all backgrounds is increasingly important. Hispanics are now the fastest growing ethnic group, a trend that has tremendous ramifications on media, retail and manufacturers now and in the years ahead. Optimism was highest among African American and Hispanic women, especially when it came to how they viewed the opportunities they have had compared with those of their mothers.

The optimism does not stop with the women of today: they are extremely positive about the outlook for the women of tomorrow – their daughters – and expect them to have more opportunities available to them than they themselves have now.

Media and Mobile
Despite the stereotype that men are the primary users of media and technology, American women are heavy users of technology – even if they aren’t early adopters. Women of all ethnicities use media in similar ways, with one key exception: smartphones. Just 33 percent of Caucasian women have a smartphone in their household, compared to penetration rates in the 60s for women of other ethnicities.

For more insights, download Women of Tomorrow: U.S. Multicultural Insights.

Even more surprising was the degree of variability between the different media sellers. Nielsen found that while the three ad networks reached the campaign’s intended audience 20-30 percent of the time, the women’s interest site, due to its audience composition, was most successful at delivering the intended audience.

For more on this case study, download the report, Building Brands in a Cross-Platform World.

On the flip side, when budgets are reduced by 10 percent, discretionary spend—especially in the areas of ‘apparel’ (-21%) and dining out’ (-18%)—are reduced. Consumers also indicated a spending cut back on ‘electronics and appliances’ (-14%). “If the global economic climate worsens, these three sectors appear to be particularly vulnerable,” continued Dr. Bala.

In the event of having to make do with a smaller budget, respondents also indicated a reduction in savings/investment by 10 percent. “The asymmetry with expansion suggests that while respondents would like to preserve or add to their savings and investments, they also recognize that they may be bumping up against harder economic realities,” said Dr. Bala.

For more detail and insight, download Nielsen’s Q3 2011 Consumer Confidence report.