The Super Bowl is perhaps the most important marketing event of the year, as its popularity applies to the commercials as much as the game. In that respect, auto makers were the real winners of this year’s Bowl.

By the close of the third quarter of 2010, Nielsen reports that all 12 markets across Asia Pacific maintained earlier quarters’ growth momentum in ad spending.

The U.S. market, which faced six straight quarters of declines in ad spending, has seen a turnaround in 2010, with a 3.8 percent increase year-over-year.

Spending on Spanish Language and African-American media declined 4.7% and 7.3%, respectively, in 2009, according to figures released today by The Nielsen Company. The declines are consistent with the trend in overall advertising, although the drops aren’t as deep. Last month, Nielsen reported that ad spending fell nine percent in 2009, despite significant increases in Cable TV.

Many economists believe that Asia has been at the forefront of the global economic recovery, and new research from The Nielsen Company indicates that in terms of advertising spend, the recovery is in full swing in a large part of the region.

Overall ad spending stayed afloat in Q1 ‘09 vs. Q1 ‘08
Toward the end of 2008, the global downturn was adversely impacting advertising spending throughout many key markets around the world, with Europe and the Americas struggling more than others.  The exception to this was Asia Pacific (APAC), which appeared to be relatively impervious to the worst of the downturn. Beginning in late 2008, and escalating as the first quarter of 2009 unfolded, the majority of APAC markets were finally succumbing to declining economic conditions with substantial declines in advertising activity. …

Advertising spending around the world dropped 7.2 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, according to Nielsen’s Global AdView Pulse.  European countries were hit the hardest, with ad spending down in Spain 28.2 percent, Ireland down 21.2 percent and Italy down 19.1 percent.  The U.S. recorded a decline of 12.7 percent.  Ad spending in Asia Pacific was down just 2.3 percent in the first quarter.  Indonesia actually recorded growth of 19.1 percent due largely to the elections there, while China’s growth slowed to …

Image-based online ad spending by consumer goods companies increased 57 percent over the last two years, growing from $99.8 million in the first quarter of 2007 to $156.2 million in the same quarter in 2009, according to new Nielsen research.
Quarter-over-Quarter Growth in Online Display Ad Spend by U.S. Consumer Goods Industry

Quarter
Estimated Spend
Quarter-over-Quarter Growth

Q1 2007
99,814,750
n/a

Q1 2008
122,785,505
23%

Q1 2009
156,221,975
27%

Source: Nielsen AdRelevance

“While direct response advertising has been very successful on the Internet, with categories like finance and travel devoting a significant portion of their budget to online advertising, on-line advertising will not continue to …

Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines all recorded sound growth in ad spending in 2008 despite the global economic downturn.  Meanwhile, ad spending in Thailand dropped 3 percent during the year as political instability took a toll.
INDONESIA
Leading the group was Indonesia, where ad spending increased 19 percent in 2008 over the previous year, and all four quarter showed growth.

Media Outlet
2008 (US$000s)
2007 (US$000s)
% Change

TV
2,868,654
2,522,678
14%

Newspapers
1,499,080
1,165,809
29%

Magazines
182,731
149,715
22%

TOTAL
4,550,465
3,838,202
19%

Source: Nielsen AIS

The top 10 ad spending categories combined represent 77 percent of all main media spending in Indonesia.  The office equipment/computers/communications category led spending …

With economic uncertainty, a declining real estate market and a depreciating currency, South Korea felt the full impact of the global recession in 2008.  Ad spending fell 8 percent versus 2007 – the largest drop of the 12 countries Nielsen analyzed in Asia – with a drop of 19 percent in the fourth quarter.  All outlets – TV, newspapers, magazines and radio – saw declines in spending.
Ad spending in the largest category – financing, insurance & securities – not surprisingly dropped 13 percent in 2008, while construction & real estate …