Financial

Global ad spending grew by 3.2% last year, but some sectors fared better than others, details Nielsen in further results released publicly from its Global AdView Pulse report. At the forefront of spending growth were the telecom and FMCG sectors, boosting expenditures by 7% and 6.8%, respectively. On the other end of the spectrum, spending by durables brands declined by 2.1%, while healthcare companies cut back slightly, by 0.7%. Read more »

By 2015, the internet should account for 23.4% of global ad spending, details Zenith Optimedia in a new forecast. That's up more than 5% points from last year's 18%, and comes at the expense of almost all traditional media, none of which are slated to see any growth in share of spending. TV's share will remain flat, at about 40%, as will cinema's (at just 0.6%), but newspapers, magazines, radio, and outdoor will see varying levels of declining share. Print, as expected, will be hardest hit: newspapers and magazines are the only media forecast to see a decline in expenditures. Read more »

41% of marketers say that inbound marketing demonstrates ROI for their company, compared to 9% who believe it doesn't, according to HubSpot's newly-released "State of Inbound Marketing 2013" report. But another one-third cannot (or do not) calculate ROI. A difficulty in tracking reliable metrics may be why despite healthy inbound implementation rates and projected spending increases, a leading 25% of inbound marketers say that proving ROI is their top challenge. Read more »

Traditional media continue to dominate global advertising spending, and most show no signs of falling off for the time being, according to new data released by Nielsen. TV, which commands the lion's share of global ad budgets, saw a 4.3% increase in expenditures for the year, reaching $350 billion. Cinema, radio, and outdoor saw growth rate above the 3.2% overall average, up 5.8%, 6.1%, and 7.7%, respectively. And while magazines (-1.6%) and newspapers (-0.2%) saw slight declines in spending, they still accounted for more than one-quarter of global spending. Read more »

Marketing budget conditions improved again this month, details Warc [pdf] in its latest Global Marketing Index. The budget component of the index improved to a reading of 52.9 this month from 52.4 in February, representing the 4th consecutive month above the threshold reading of 50, and the 6th consecutive month of improving sentiment. (A score above 50 indicates a generally improving environment, while a score below 50 indicates a generally declining environment.) Read more »

Worldwide advertising spending grew by 3.2% year-over-year in 2012 to reach $557 billion, per data from Nielsen's latest quarterly Global AdView Pulse report. After increasing by 2.7% in the first half of the year, ad spend heated up in Q3 to the tune of a 4.3% gain, before losing steam in Q4, increasing by 2.5%, the smallest gain of the year. For the full year, ad spending in North America grew by 4.6% (with the US' increase recently reported by Kantar Media to be at 3%), while Europeans cut spending by 4.2%. Read more »

Mobile payments have been common among tech-savvy consumers, according to [pdf] results from a survey from the IAB, Viggle, and InMobi. 57% of respondents to the survey reported having redeemed a coupon, code or voucher by mobile, while more than 4 in 10 have paid for digital products (such as applications and ringtones - 45%) and paid their mobile phone bill (42%) via their device. Person-to-person (P2P) payments remain scant for the time being, at 19%. Respondents were drawn from Viggle's registered users, and are both technology- and media-savvy. Read more »

Global advertising spend (based on trends in 12 major markets) will increase by 3% this year and 5.4% next year, predicts Warc [pdf] in a new forecast. However, taking into account forecast inflation provides a duller forecast for global ad spend growth, at just 0.6% this year and 2.4% in 2014. This year's 3% forecast growth (at current prices) follows from 3.8% estimated growth (also at current prices) last year, with the slowdown mainly due to political and Olympic dollars exiting the market this year along with continuing global economic concerns. Read more »

A new report from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) finds that 44% of client-side marketers decreased their ad budgets during the 6 months prior to the survey, compared to just 17% who increased those budgets. The responses are indicative of a new environment whereby most marketers are tasked with finding cost-saving mechanisms, irrespective of economic realities. Still, while 44% decreased their ad budgets during the 6 months prior to the survey, only 27% expect to decrease them in the next 6 months. Read more »

82% of marketers agree that with the current economic conditions, they're challenged with identifying cost savings and reductions in their marketing and advertising efforts, per results from an Association of National Advertisers (ANA) survey. That's down slightly from 84% last year and a high of 93% at the beginning of 2009, but remains above 2011's 77%. The ANA conclues that "there will always be pressures on budgets, even in the best of times." Read more »