Advertising in Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America grew by 1.5%, year-over-year, in the second quarter of 2008, Nielsen reported Wednesday.
Strong advertising growth in the Asia-Pacific region (+7.6% over Q2 2007) drove the increase, according to data released in Nielsen’s latest Global AdView Pulse report.
Ad spending trends worldwide showed significant variations — with overall advertising declines recorded in North America (-1%) and Europe (-3%).

Advertising by credit card services companies dipped significantly in the first three weeks of September, as the ongoing economic turmoil in the U.S. reached a boiling point, Nielsen Monitor-Plus reported Thursday.
Among credit card services companies, TV ad units for Sept. 1 – 21, 2008 were down by almost 24% versus the same time period last year.
Most of the top advertisers in the Credit Card Services category — including Capital One, Discover, Synovus, Washington Mutual, and Visa — reduced their TV television advertising activity in September.
Earlier in 2008, advertising by credit card …

In 2007, U.S. advertisers placed $5.78 billion of advertising in Spanish-language media, according to a report issued Thursday by Nielsen’s Monitor-Plus advertising service.
That’s a 3% increase over the $5.63 billion spent on Spanish-language media in 2006.  Overall in 2007, U.S. advertising spending rose 0.6% over 2006.
Broadcast Media Partners Inc. (Univision’s parent company), which spent $205.9 million on advertising in 2007, was the largest advertiser across all Spanish-language media.  Lexicon marketing, which increased its ad spending by 38% from 2006 to 2007, showed the largest percentage increase.
The Automotive category, which spent just over $659.4 million …

This year’s presumptive presidential nominees seem hesitant to advertise over the Internet. According to Nielsen Online, the candidates have been active with search advertisements, with McCain getting 5.4 million hits in May, as opposed to Obama’s 1.8 million.
Mediaweek reports that digital ad executives say they are disappointed, puzzled, even a little impatient when it comes to the light spending to date. Meanwhile, those with firsthand knowledge of the campaigns say that in spite of the Web proving a fund-raising gold mine (particularly for Sen. Obama), senior officials continue to …

The Nielsen Company announced today that Sony Pictures Television (SPT)’s television and Internet properties reach households that account for 83.2% in annual spending for consumer packaged goods products.  This accounts for $346 billion in annual consumer spending.  The extensive analysis of media consumption and consumer behavior was conducted by NielsenConnections.
Nielsen found that households reached by SPT’s television or Internet properties at least once a month spend an average of more than $3,700 on consumer packaged goods per year, seven percent higher than households not reached by their television or Internet …

Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the competitive advertising information service of The Nielsen Company, recently revealed that advertising spending for the first quarter of 2008 remained essentially flat compared to the same period last year, according to preliminary figures.
Advertising was mixed across media with gains in some mediums and declines in others.  Overall despite a continued softening of the economy, several media and companies are showing healthy growth in advertising for this quarter.
Advertising in National Sunday Supplements saw the largest growth, with an increase of 19.2% over Q1 2007, while Local Sunday Supplements fared …