German advertising spend declined by 9.8% in December last year, according to an analysis of ACNielsen data by ABN Amro. The broker had predicted a fall of 7.7%.
Radio was the hardest hit by the slowdown, declining by 19.3% for the final month of 2001; newspapers also suffered, down by 11.0%. Only magazines outperformed the broker’s forecasts: ABN predicted growth of -8.0%; the sector actually fell by 7.6%.
Outdoor, on the other hand, massively underperformed as against the forecasts. The sector fell by 1.3%, whilst ABN analysts had predicted a positive growth of 11.1%, as shown.
| German advertising growth, December 2001 | ||||
| Oct ’01 | Nov ’01 | Dec ’01 | Dec ’01F | |
| Television | -8.6 | -10.1 | -9.8 | -8.6 |
| Radio | -7.6 | -13.1 | -19.3 | -10.7 |
| Magazines | -10.5 | -11.2 | -7.6 | -8.0 |
| Newspapers | -9.1 | -10.3 | -11.0 | -8.3 |
| Outdoor | -11.1 | -0.4 | -1.3 | 11.1 |
| Total | -9.4 | -10.2 | -9.8 | -7.7 |
| Source: ABN Amro, 01/02/02 | ||||
The full year 2001 showed total adspend down 7.1% in Germany. The UK, by way of comparison, dropped around 4.0% in 2001 (see UK Advertising Growth Forecasts Update).
| German advertising growth, Q4 and 2001FY | ||||
| Q4A | Q4F | 2001A | 2001F | |
| Television | -9.5 | -9.1 | -5.2 | -5.0 |
| Radio | -13.0 | -10.4 | -10.6 | -9.9 |
| Magazines | -9.9 | -10.0 | -4.6 | -4.6 |
| Newspapers | -10.1 | -9.3 | -10.2 | -10.0 |
| Outdoor | -4.9 | -2.0 | -0.9 | -0.1 |
| Total | -9.8 | -9.3 | -7.1 | -7.0 |
| Source: ABN Amro, 01/02/02 | ||||
