Global Ad Spend Up 3.2% in 2012

Worldwide advertising spending grew by 3.2% year-over-year in 2012 to reach $557 billion, per data from Nielsen’s latest quarterly Global AdView Pulse report. After increasing by 2.7% in the first half of the year, ad spend heated up in Q3 to the tune of a 4.3% gain, before losing steam in Q4, increasing by 2.5%, the smallest gain of the year. For the full year, ad spending in North America grew by 4.6% (with the US’ increase recently reported by Kantar Media to be at 3%), while Europeans cut spending by 4.2%. (more…)