In 2011, media buyers invested 21 billion Euros online in Europe.

Radio spend increased 6.9 per cent and cinema 9.5 percent, press fell 10 percent, according to Advertising Association and Warc's Expenditure report in the first quarter of 2012.

Ad spend on cinema increased 9.5% in the first three months this year and is expected to grow another 3.1%.

UK ad spend increased 1.1% in the first quarter of 2012, despite turbulence in the global economy, according to the AA/Warc Expenditure Report.

Internet ad spend is estimated to have grown 11.1% in Q1 2012 compared with Q1 2011 and is expected to remain strong throughout the year, with a forecast of 10.1% growth and an overall value of $8.3bn in 2012.

Marketers in Europe, by contrast, were of neutral sentiment (50), after showing generally improving sentiment (52.5) last month.

Ad spend in Greece has more than halved in the past five years, with Zenith now expecting a 19.5 per cent dive in marketing budgets there.

Online advertising spend in the Arab region is estimated to reach $266 million by 2013 and $1 billion by 2016, up from $56 million in 2009, according to Zenith Optimedia.

Although traditional media still makes up the majority of marketers’ budgets, only 22% are forecasting increases in traditional media spending this year compared to 2011, while half expect to increase their paid digital media spend, and two-thirds their earned digital media spend.

Digital marketing spends are growing, albeit slowly. This year, one-third of respondents project digital channels to make up 60% or more of their marketing budgets, up slightly from 31% in 2011.

Brands are more likely to look internally to expand their digital marketing and communication initiatives: 62% said they would increase internal resources for these purposes, compared to 42% who said they would increase external resources. 28% said they would diversify agency partnerships and select agencies based on areas of expertise, while 19% will look to consolidate their agency partnerships.

Meanwhile, data from the SoDA “Q1 2012 Digital Marketing Outlook” indicates that blog writing, editing, and copywriting skill sets are in high demand, with 61% of respondents citing them as an increased priority this year, with a further 37% saying they are an ongoing priority. Other skill sets that are increasing in importance for a majority of respondents are mobile application development (57%), digital brand management and measurement (52%), and mobile site development (50%), with social media marketing (49%) following closely.

Word-of-mouth and online video are the leading areas respondents where anticipate focusing their earned media digital marketing efforts in the coming 1-2 years.

Nielsen’s figure is slightly conservative—its totals are based on prices advertised and do not include extra fees that might have been incurred. In contrast, eMarketer estimated total online ad spending in Germany at $5.6 billion in 2011.

Companies surveyed are spending, on average, 36% of their total marketing budgets on digital, a slight decrease from 37% last year.

Restricted budget for all types of marketing has remained the most significant barrier to investment in digital marketing for the third year in a row. While the proportion of company respondents mentioning this has decreased in the last year, from 48% in 2011 to 42% this year, it’s still the main issue preventing companies from investing more in digital channels.

Western Europe is at the centre of the current economic turmoil, and we forecast it to grow by just 2.0% in 2012, even though the Olympics is being held in the UK (which means that the coverage will be broadcast at ideal times for Western European audiences) and most of the big markets will be participating in the European Football Championship. Assuming the economy improves by the end of next year, we forecast 2.8% growth in 2013 and 3.3% in 2014.

Most of the growth in global ad expenditure is now coming from developing markets, which we forecast to contribute 58% of new ad dollars between 2011 and 2014. Asia Pacific, Central & Eastern Europe and Latin America are all expanding much faster than the developed world, driven by both their current economic performance and their future potential.

eMarketer estimates total media ad spending in Western Europe will have grown 1.8% to $114.4 billion by the end of 2011.

On the other hand, online advertising is growing slightly faster than expected, 12.8%, to reach $24.5 billion in 2011, eMarketer estimates. It will climb 13.9% in 2012, to $27.9 billion.

The UK will remain the region’s largest ad market, but Germany is an emerging powerhouse, with 2012 online ad spending estimated at $6.5 billion.

eMarketer estimates that mobile ad spending in the region will pass the $1 billion mark in 2012 and post a CAGR of 52% through 2015.

30 percent of Adspend in the UK is segmented throught the internet, while television and newspaper hold 26 and 24 percent respectively.

The poll, which was conducted during a webinar titled: “2011 Second Quarter Global Hotel Industry Update,” also showed that almost all the attendees polled (95.3 percent) plan to either increase their workforce (50 percent) or keep their workforce the same (45.3 percent). Of the respondents planning to increase their workforce, 30 percent plan to hire staff specifically for social media.

In Western Europe, quarterly ad spend flat-lined with -0.3 percent growth and seven out of 12 European markets reported quarterly declines. Ad spend in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, reported an increase of 3.1 percent in Q2.

Digital display advertising has shown an average growth rate of 21.3 percent in Europe, overtaking search as the fastest growing online ad format in Europe. 

28% of B2B companies have seen their overall budgets rise, but almost as many (22%) have seen them fall.

Newspaper advertising also declined 1.6% percent in Western Europe during the quarter

Lack of budget (40%) is the biggest factor preventing companies from being as successful at paid search as they would like. Just over a third of respondents (35%) cite the lack of internal resource as an obstacle. A third (34%) say the high price of keywords is holding them back.

The proportion of companies planning increases in social media investment jumped significantly in 2010 (compared to 2009) but has fallen slightly this year. Some 63% of companies say they plan to increase social media budgets in 2011, compared to 65% in 2010 and 48% in 2009.

Companies are continuing to increase the proportion of their marketing investment on Search, with the clients surveyed reporting a spend of 22% of their total marketing budget in this area.

Almost two-thirds (63%) of companies say they expect their budgets for social media marketing to increase, compared to an equivalent figure of 59% for SEO and 53% for paid search.

In Europe, where most markets cautiously emerged from recession last year, Belgium, France, Sweden, Switzerland and UK posted approximately 10% increases. Advertising spend during 2010 peaked during Q2, with the World Cup driving the highest year-on-year increases of almost 13%.

Britain’s economy unexpectedly shrank 0.5 percent in the final three months of 2010.

However, the study also found that overall marketing budgets were revised downwards during the last three-month period, as marketers responded to the uncertain economic climate. Some 22 per cent of companies revised their marketing budget down in quarter four, while 17 per cent increased their spend, leaving a net balance of -5.4.

The number of European consumers who indicated a lack of extra money was up in each of the top five countries, with the number of Italians up from 8% in 2009 to 21% this year and almost 28% of French (up from 17% last year).

U.S. marketers spend an average of 2.5% of their total company revenue on digital marketing activities, according to a new report by Gartner Inc.U.S. marketers spend an average of 2.5% of their total company revenue on digital marketing activities, according to a new report by Gartner Inc.

CMOs are projecting increased budgets across a number of other areas. They’re expecting to spend more on new product (8%, down from 9.4% in August 2012) and service (5.8%, down from 6.5%) introductions, while also forecasting an 8.1% increase in budgets devoted to customer relationship management (down from 9%), and 6.8% more spending on brand building (down from 7.5%).

As a percentage of overall firm budgets, B2C product companies devote the largest share to marketing (16.3%). B2C services companies had reported 16.8% share of budgets going to marketing in February 2012, but that dropped to 10.9%.

CMOs will spend more on new product and service introductions over the next 12 months. They are also forecasting a 9% increase in budgets devoted to customer relationship management.

Companies who drive more than 10% of total sales from the internet allocate more of their budgets to marketing (16.4%) than companies with less than 10% of their sales coming from the internet (10.2%).

According to a Duke University study, Social Media currently makes up an average of 7.6% of respondents’ total marketing budgets. This share of spend is expected to jump by more than 40% in the next year to 10.7%, and more than double to 18.8% in the next 5 years.

B2C product company marketers expect social media to make up 24.4% of their total marketing budgets in the next 5 years.

Now it’s the time to roll-up sleeves and build Mobile into an integrated marketing strategy. In 2012, marketers will spend $2.6 billion on Mobile advertising in the United States, and $6.5 billion August 2012 5 globally, according to eMarketer estimates.

Our data shows that the exact recommended share of the budget should be higher for marketers selling higher involvement products, such as automobiles and financial services – approximately 9 percent, and a bit lower for brands selling lower involvement products, such as fast moving consumer packaged goods.

Over the next 4 years, Mobile’s share of the media mix is projected to increase to over 10 percent.

As with previous months, digital (excluding mobile) and mobile channels continued to attract global spend in March, with index scores of 78.9 and 71.2, respectively. The press again experienced the largest reduction in expenditure, with a score of 36.1, although that was an increase from 33.5 last month. Radio also improved slightly from 39.6 to 42.3, though remained well below the threshold for rising expenditure. TV and out-of-home hovered around the neutral mark, at 48.8 and 48, respectively.

As with previous months, digital (excluding mobile) and mobile channels continued to attract global spend in March, with index scores of 78.9 and 71.2, respectively. The press again experienced the largest reduction in expenditure, with a score of 36.1, although that was an increase from 33.5 last month. Radio also improved slightly from 39.6 to 42.3, though remained well below the threshold for rising expenditure. TV and out-of-home hovered around the neutral mark, at 48.8 and 48, respectively.

Over the next three years we expect Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) to grow by an average of 10.4% a year, Central & Eastern Europe to grow 9.6% a year and Latin America to grow by 7.3% a year. The exception is the Middle East & North Africa, where political turmoil has disrupted media production and distribution, and made advertisers wary of attracting negative attention. We forecast the Middle East & North Africa to grow at an average of 1.3% between 2011 and 2014.

Over the next three years nearly half (48%) of all the world’s growth in ad expenditure will come from just ten developing markets. The four BRIC markets alone (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are forecast to account for 33% of global growth. Beyond the BRICs, there are six fast-growing markets we forecast to add between US$1 billion and US$4 billion each to the global ad market, and deliver another 15% of global growth: Indonesia, South Africa, Argentina, Turkey, Mexico and South Korea. In these ten markets ad expenditure occupies 0.32% of GDP, less than half of the world average of 0.70%, demonstrating their huge potential for further catch-up growth.

Despite overall growth of 5.7 percent for the advertising industry in Q2 2011, ad spending fell in nearly half the world’s key markets in the second quarter of this year as economic concerns continued to impact the advertising industry, according to Nielsen’s quarterly Global AdView Pulse report.

Global advertising in Q2 totaled USD127 billion (mainly based on published rate cards and four major media types), and the first half of 2011 closed with a +7.2 percent growth over the same period in 2010.

While radio posted the largest percentage increase among all traditional media in Q2 (+8.2%), overall television continued to dominate global advertising, accounting for 65 percent of total spend.

Nielsen reported that advertising revenue dropped in Q2 in 16 out of 36 global markets – the first significant decline since the Q3 2009 report when ad spend fell in more than half the markets monitored at the height of the global recession.

Global advertising in Q2 totaled USD127 billion (mainly based on published rate cards and four major media types), and the first half of 2011 closed with a +7.2 percent growth over the same period in 2010.

The decline in FMCG ad spend was particularly surprising as the Easter holiday, traditionally a key occasion for FMCG and confectionary advertising in Europe and North America, took place in late April this year, which should have pushed more ad revenue to the beginning of Q2, noted Beard. Within FMCG, cosmetics and toiletries posted the most robust growth of 6.9 percent and accounted for nearly one in every ten dollars spent globally.

eMarketer predicts advertisers around the world will spend nearly $500 billion in 2011—a growth rate of 4.5%. Online ad expenditures of $80.2 billion are growing at a rate of 17.2% and fueling total media ad spending growth.

Online advertising has become a crucial element in ad budgets worldwide and will account for 16.1% of total media spending across the globe in 2011. By 2015, online advertising will comprise nearly 22% of total media spending.

Total global ad spend, forecast at $465.72 billion for 2011, is expected to grow about 12% to about $519.86 billion in 2013.

52% of B2B marketers plan to increase their marketing budgets.

Global advertising spend rose 8.8% year-over-year in Q1 2011 to total $118 billion USD based on published rate cards, according to Nielsen Global AdView Pulse data. Nielsen analysis indicates heavier TV spending, as well as increased investment in the Latin American and Asian consumer markets, drove growth.

“With $6.50 of every $10 being spent on TV, it’s clear that TV remains the most important and cost-effective advertising medium for companies looking to reach new consumers, especially in booming emerging markets,” said Nielsen Global Head of Advertiser Solutions Randall Beard.

Growth in emerging regions of Asia-Pacific (12.4%) and Latin America (11%) drove global ad growth in Q1 2011, followed by Middle East/Africa, which still increased 10.4% despite a 51.3% decline in Egypt’s ad revenue as most companies temporarily halted advertising during the country’s social and political upheaval.

In addition, ad spend for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) increased 14.6% in 2010, and the sector’s share of ad spend also increased 4%, from 23.9% to 24.9%. Regionally, FMCG spend grew by more than the global average in Middle East/Africa (34.3%), Latin America (23.9%) and Asia Pacific (16%).

Emerging markets attracted advertisers to new booming markets in Pan-Arab (+43%), Egypt (+40.8%), and Argentina (+38.9%), which recorded the highest percentage advertising increases.

Latin America, in addition to posting the second highest regional ad spend increase (+21.2%) in 2010, spearheaded by Argentina, also benefited from the highest ad increases across the financial (+37.2%), entertainment (+17.8%), clothing/accessories (+22%) and media (23.8%) sectors.

On a worldwide basis, social networks are also increasing their representation. Of the nearly $69 billion marketers will spend on online advertising worldwide in 2011, 8.7% will land on social networks, rising to 10.2% of $79 billion in 2012.

98% of travel industry respondents said they would increase or maintain travel industry marketing spend in 2011. Some 56% said they would increase; 42% said they would maintain budget levels.