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NIELSEN: GLOBAL AD SPEND INCREASED 3.1% IN Q1 2012: Middle East, Africa and Latin America Leading Growth

New York June 28 2012: After a strong finish to 2011, global advertising spend continued to rise in the beginning of 2012: up 3.1 percent compared to the same period last year, according to Nielsen's quarterly Global AdView Pulse report, released today. Overall global ad spend in Q1 2012 grew to $128 billion USD.

Dollars devoted to ads in emerging markets increased at a faster rate than global ad spend as a whole. The Middle East and Africa was up 23.3 percent as advertisers turned to budding and stabilizing economies there. In particular, Egypt saw ad spend growth of 67 percent in Q1 following last year's Arab Spring. Latin America also saw significant year-over-year growth of 9.6 percent. Asia-Pacific grew 1.7 percent, a small increase following large gains in recent years.

"Advertisers continue to recognize the potential of emerging markets like Latin America and Africa as they look to reach new customers," said Randall Beard, Global Head, Advertiser Solutions, Nielsen. "These markets have proven their resilience through the down economy, and many consumers now wield spending power like never before."

In North America and Europe, the ad market did not experience the same level of increase. North American ad spend grew 2.1 percent. Ad spend in Europe declined slightly (1.4%), with countries most impacted by the recession the hardest hit. Greece and Spain, for example, both saw significant declines. On the other hand, France, Germany and Switzerland drew more ad dollars than last year. Europe was the only region to see a decrease in ad spend.

Methodology
The external data sources for the other countries included in the report are:

Argentina: IBOPE
Brazil: IBOPE
Croatia: Nielsen in association with Ipsos
Egypt: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
France: Yacast
Greece: Media Services
Hong Kong: admanGo
Japan: Nihon Daily Tsushinsha
Kuwait: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
Lebanon: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
Mexico: IBOPE
Pan-Arab Media: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
Portugal: Mediamonitor
Saudi Arabia: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)
Spain: Arce Media
Switzerland: Nielsen in association with Media Focus
UAE: PARC (Pan Arab Research Centre)

ABOUT NIELSEN
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

CONTACTS:
Julia Monti, 646 654 4412, julia.monti@nielsen.com
Stephanie Manning, +31 20 398 8238, stephanie.manning@nielsen.com

The European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) is a Brussels-based organisation whose mission is to represent full-service advertising and media agencies and agency associations in Europe. EACA aims to promote honest, effective advertising, high professional standards, and awareness of the contribution of advertising in a free market economy and to encourage close co-operation between agencies, advertisers and media in European advertising bodies.