Relevant events

• The eurozone economic crisis remained at the forefront of news during the first quarter, with the Spanish banking crisis and Greece’s continued turmoil topping headlines well into the second quarter.
• Though the Middle East has stabilized somewhat regionally, the war in Syria continues—having knock-on effects to neighboring countries

Relevant facts

• Dollars devoted to ads in emerging markets increased at a faster rate than global ad spend as a whole
• Asia Pacific saw a significant cool-down to growth at +1.7 percent in Q1—due to a notable decline in spending in the Chinese ad market

After a strong finish to 2011, global advertising spend continued to rise in the beginning of 2012: up 3.1%.

Egypt and the Pan-Arab region are clear stand-outs with huge leaps and the highest percentages of change.

On the other hand, Greece and Spain’s ad spend have decreased the most with -21.4% and -14.0% respectively.

Even though ad spend of “Distribution Channels” has increased the most with 10.8%, the highest number of dollars spent was on Fast Moving Commercial Goods (FMCG) with a whopping $31,018,000,000.

The least money spent was on ads in the Clothing & Accessories sector with $4,248,000,000.

Even though highest percentage of increase in media is the Internet, the highest share of money spent from 2011 to 2012 was in Television.

Europe has experienced an intense downfall in ad spend with 4 out 7 of the total media in the red, whereas the Middle East and Africa have experienced peaks in advertising on the Internet, outdoor media, radio and television.

What is a Consumer Confidence Index?

A “Consumer Confidence Index” provides a single indicator of consumer sentiment towards the current economic situation as well as intentions and expectations for the future.
Three questions are used to calculate the Index. The scale of answers to all three questions is: Excellent, Good, Not so good, Bad.