Ad spend to increase 6.4% next year

Group M is forecasting a 6.4% increase in global advertising spend in 2012 driven by a resurgent ad sector in Japan, the Olympics, European soccer championships and US presidential elections. However the growth rate is lower than the media buyer’s previous 2012 forecast of 6.8%, which was made in July.

Accordingly, forecasts for key markets including the US and the UK have been downgraded. Japan is one exception as the economy recovers from the effects of the natural disasters that hit the country earlier this year.

A 6.4% increase across the 70 countries that Group M covers would mean that advertising revenues will total US$522 billion (€390 billion) in 2012.

“Japan’s advertising recovery has proved substantially more vigorous and resilient than we forecast in our mid-year report,” said GroupM Futures Director Adam Smith. “Additionally, the so-called ‘quadrennial effect’ of the American elections, the Olympics and European football are worth an estimated one per cent of incremental growth in 2012.”