International ad spend rising

As this is a global study, information is broken down by regions and not countries, so there is no South African-specific information.

The advertising trend of the Nielsen countries, at the end of the summer, is showing an improved positive trend: +2.1%. The drivers are still the Asia Pacific countries (+12.6%), building on the strong basis of the EMEA region (+4.6%). Though North America is still showing a negative trend (-4.6% based on TV, press and radio), once all media available in the market are analysed, the US closes the eight months at -1.0% and Canada at +6.4%.

The month of August is in line with the year to date trend and sees Asia Pacific growing by 13.6% versus the same month in 2006. The EMEA market also grows (+6.8%) while North America overall is spending less on advertising than in August 2006 (-4.8%).

Major media types

All major media types are closing the first eight months of the year positively. Radio, on the other hand, is suffering, although part of the trend could be influenced by the change in methodology which took place this year in the US. TV shows a rise of +3.3% during August and a steady increase of 2.5% from the beginning of the year. Magazines, which grew by 3.6% during August, are still showing the strongest media performance for the cumulative period (+6.0%).

For newspapers, while showing a +2.7% increase overall, the month of August proved to be positive for this media type and closes with a +8.2% result. Radio advertising expenditure seemed to decrease both on a monthly and cumulative level (-15.8% and -13.8% respectively).

However, if the USA is excluded, where there has been a change in methodology for this media in 2007, the picture looks quite different: +4.8% from the beginning of the year and +7.3% in August.

A positive year to date result for finance (+14.8), clothing (+8.3%), telecommunications (+7.5%) and FMCG (+6.2). All other sectors (with the exception of automotive and media) show positive signs of up to +5%.

Comparing August 2007 versus August 2006, the picture is quite similar to the cumulative one. Finance is increasing by +21.4%, telecommunications by +10.6%, FMCG by +6.8% and all other sectors (excluding automotive) show positive signs up to +5%. Automotive and media are the only two sectors to show a decline in the advertising expenditure. Whilst the former is closing both August and the cumulative period with a minus sign (-5.5% and -3.5% respectively), media seems to have a better result in August (+1.1%) than for the year to date (-1.5%).

Methodology

Run by Nielsen Global AdView, the report indicates the advertising expenditure for the Nielsen territories (Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, US).

The source of the information for all data included in the report is Nielsen Media Research, the media services business of The Nielsen Company. Figures are expressed in million US$, and are gross except for the countries that provide the industry with discount factors (Italy, Australia, Thailand).

The World Trend section includes all Nielsen territories (as listed above) and is related to the following media types : TV, newspapers, magazines and radio.

The different regions include spend on TV, newspapers, magazines and radio and the following countries: Asia Pacific (Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand); Europe and Africa: (Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, UK); and North America: (Canada, US).

The country breakdown refers to all media types available in the country.

Macro-sectors include the following categories:

• Automotive: Automotive
  
• Industry & Services: Business Services, Property, Institutions, Power & Water,
  
• Clothing & Accessories: Clothing & Accessories
  
• FMCG: Cosmetics & Toiletries, Drinks, Food, Housekeeping Products, Tobacco
  
• Distribution Channels: Distribution Channels
  
• Durables: Domestic appliances, Furnishings & Decoration, Information Technology
  
• Entertainment: Entertainment, Leisure products, Transport & Tourism
  
• Financial: Financial
  
• Healthcare: Healthcare
  
• Media: Media & Publishing
  
• Telecommunications

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