James Russo, Vice President, Marketing, Nielsen
With unemployment reaching 25-year highs, it is no surprise that Americans are nervous about their futures.  Over the last twelve months, confidence has nosedived as consumers worry about keeping their jobs, paying their mortgages and other bills, and their retirements.
We are on the verge of a potential fundamental shift in how consumers shop and buy that could have ramifications long past economic recovery.  They are shopping less and changing the types of products they purchase, such as shifting …

A sharp decrease in advertising spending by the mortgage and loan sectors led a 10% slide in spending across the entire financial services industry this year, according to an analysis released Monday by Nielsen.
Mortgage and loan companies, including Web-based companies, combined to spend 62% — or $778 million — less on advertising during the first three quarters of 2008, compared with the same time period last year.
Overall, ad spending by financial services companies dropped from $5.9 billion in Q1-Q3 2007 to $5.3 billion through September of this year, according to Nielsen.  Nielsen’s data excludes …