Nielsen: internet ad spending rose by 12 percent during Q1 2012

Worldwide spending on internet advertising increased by 12.1 percent during Q1 of this year, according to the latest Global AdView Pulse report from Nielsen. Over this same period, global ad spending across all platforms increased by 3.1 percent. Television continues to command the largest share of global spending by volume, though it only grew by 2.8 percent compared to Q1 2011; radio ad purchases, by comparison, increased by 7.9 percent over the year. Quarterly expenditures also grew across newspapers (3.1 percent), movie theaters (4.1 percent), and outdoor advertisements (6.4 percent), with only the magazine sector seeing a year-on-year decline of 1.4 percent.

Most notable, however, is the rise in web spending — particularly within the Middle East and Africa, where online ad buys rose by 35.2 percent over the year. Nielsen reports similarly substantial gains in Latin America (31.8 percent) and Europe (12.1 percent). The company attributes much of this industry-wide growth to stronger consumer confidence, though there are important regional variations to consider. Europe, for example, was the only region to see an overall decline in ad spending across all platforms (-1.4 percent), due in large part to its ongoing economic difficulties.