During the second quarter of 2008, a typical U.S. mobile subscriber placed or received 204 phone calls each month.  In comparison, the average mobile customer sent or received 357 text messages per month — a 450% increase over the number of text messages circulated monthly during the same period in 2006.

U.S. teens (ages 13 to 17) had the highest levels of text messaging in Q2 2008, sending and receiving an average of 1,742 text messages per month.  In comparison, teens took part in an average of 231 mobile phone calls per month, during the same time period.

Nielsen tracks billing activity through an opt-in panel of more than 50,000 personally liable, postpaid U.S. mobile lines across the top four carriers, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless.

Read more about text messaging trends in the U.S. in the November issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The New York Times, Wired, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cellular-news.com, Gearlog, and on CNET.com.

Despite a continued softening of the economy, several media showed healthy growth in advertising for the first half.  Advertising on Cable TV (+8.1%), Syndication TV (+7.2%), and National Sunday Supplements (+7.2%) saw the largest growth, according to Nielsen.  Spot Radio fared worst among the 19 media categories analyzed by Nielsen (-10.1%). 

Although overall Internet ad spending, when including paid search and online video advertising, was up by 11% during the first half of this year, image-based Internet advertising declined by 6% during the first half of 2008, compared to the same period in 2007.

Among specific product categories, Credit Card Services (+18.95%) and Direct Response Products (+20.48%) showed the strongest ad spending gains, while the Automotive (-.01%), Pharmaceutical (-4.76%), and Motion Picture (-4.64%) categories recorded the largest advertising declines.

The decrease in image-based Internet advertising was driven by a 27% drop in online ad spending by financial services companies, which decreased their spending from $1.5 billion in the first half of 2007 to $1.1 billion during the first two quarters of this year. 

Other industries — entertainment (+47%), automotive (+45%), and consumer goods (+32%) — showed strong increases in image-based online advertising during the first half of 2008.

View the full press release.

View Nielsen Online’s report on first half 2008 online ad spending.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Wired, Investment News, the Financial Times, Crain’s New York Business, TV Week, Broadcasting & Cable, MediaPost, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek, and Mediaweek.

For complete earnings details, read the full press release and Nielsen’s quarterly financial report on Form 10-Q.

Read past Nielsen financial announcements.

Conference Call and Webcast
Nielsen held an earnings conference call and audio-webcast on Thursday, August 14. 

Listen to the call replay by dialing 888.286.8010 (U.S. only) or 617.801.6888, and entering the following passcode: 11296384.

View the archived audio-webcast.

Terrestrial TV (+37%), point-of-sale (+33%), radio (+22%), and newspapers (+16%) saw the largest growth. 

Overall, newspapers and terrestrial TV accounted for the bulk of ad spending during the first half of the year.  Newspapers cornered 56% of all advertising — or RM1.6 billion, while terrestrial TV claimed 33% (RM948 million), Nielsen reported. 

Telecommunications brands Celcom (RM94.9 million), Digi (RM51 million), and Maxis (RM44.7 million) were the top spenders for the period.

Increased advertising by companies in the mobile line services, local government, face care, shampoo and conditioner, and cinema categories also accounted for a significant portion of the first-half growth.

View the full press release.

Read The Edge Daily’s coverage of Nielsen’s results.