Ad expenditure set for Olympic boost

Global ad expenditure is expected to grow by 4.7% next year, up from 3.5% this year, according to analysts ZenithOptimedia. The global ad market is set to benefit from events including the summer Olympics, the US presidential elections and the European Football Championships; these quadrennial events, combined with the Japanese recovery, will provide a reliable boost to the industry.

ZenithOptimedia believes that the global ad market will be worth US$486 billion (€363 billion) in 2012, compared to US$464 billion in 2011, despite the continuing slowdown in Europe and the region’s worsening debt crisis.

Most of the global ad growth is expected to come from new advertising dollars in developing markets across Asia Pacific, central and eastern Europe and Latin America. Asia Pacific is expected to grow by an average of 10.4% a year, central and eastern Europe is expected to grow by 9.6% per year and Latin America by 7.3% a year. This is compared to forecasts of 2% growth in western Europe and 3.6% in North America in 2012.

Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting, ZenithOptimedia, said: “The global ad market is therefore remarkably strong at a time when the eurozone threatens to fall back into recession and drag down the growth of its trading partners. That’s because advertisers are in a very different position now than they were at the start of the last downturn in 2008. In general, advertisers have built up large cash reserves and – thanks to exceptionally low interest rates in the developed world – are earning very little interest on this cash.”