While online media’s “favorite child” status may have diminished somewhat over the last few months due to a new social media darling, its tremendous growth potential provides a ray of sunshine in an otherwise bleak environment.

While emerging markets experience the largest declines in consumer confidence to date, signs of recovery are imminent as the U.S. shows a glimmer of hope posting no significant declines from six months ago.

Most global consumers agree that their countries have hit recession, but opinion on how long the recession will last remains mixed, Nielsen reported Wednesday.
While 53% of those surveyed by Nielsen think their country has hit a prolonged recession that will last more than 12 months, 18% of consumers, concentrated in a handful of emerging markets, like India, Vietnam, China, and Russia, told Nielsen they expect their countries to be out of recession within the next 12 months.
In contrast, consumers in Japan, Germany, Argentina, Mexico, Turkey, Italy, Taiwan, the U.S., and Spain were the …

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%).

Corporate care of the environment and support of socially responsible programs play an increasingly influential role in consumer purchasing behavior, according to the first global survey on company ethics and corporate responsibility released by The Nielsen Company. Half the world’s consumers (51%) consider it very important that companies improve their environmental polices.  In addition, 42% of consumers place high importance on fostering other programs that contribute to improving society.
The 51-country survey polled 28,253 online consumers in May 2008, providing the first global overview on consumer attitudes towards company ethics and …