Global Ad Market To Grow In 2008

ZenithOptimedia has predicted that global ad expenditure will grow 6.7% in 2008, up from 5.3% this year, thanks to the Olympic Games, elections in the US and European football.

Developing markets have taken over as the main contributors to global advertising expenditure growth, said Zenith, compensating for slow growth in developed markets.

The media planning and buying agency also predicts that by 2010 the internet will overtake magazines to become the world’s third largest advertising medium.

Internet is expected to overtake radio advertising in 2008 and attain a double digit share of global advertising in 2009, before grabbing an 11.5% share of total adspend in 2010.

The latest figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) revealed that UK internet advertising recorded above-expectation 41.3% year on year growth in the first half of 2007.

Across the pond, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers show that US internet advertising revenues for the first half of 2007 were nearly $10 billion, setting another new record and representing a nearly 27% increase over the first half of 2006.

Meanwhile, Zenith said that it does not expect the ad market to follow the downturn in world economic growth, as unlike the last two recessions, advertisers have not been increasing their budgets year on year.

Instead, over the last few years ad expenditure has tracked the economy and has remained at 0.92%-0.93% of GDP.

The ad market will be boosted by US$6 billion in spending from the ‘quadrennial events’ in 2008: US$3 billion from the Olympics, US$2 billion from the Presidential and congressional elections in the US, and US$1 billion from the Euro 2008 football tournament.

The quadrennial accounts for almost all of the acceleration in 2008: without it, said Zenith, growth would remain flat at 5.4%.

ZenithOptimedia: www.zenithoptimedia.com