Beijing Olympics set to boost global adspend by $3bn

by Staff, Brand Republic 02-Jul-07, 11:05

LONDON - Next year's Olympic Games in Beijing are set to increase global advertising spend by an estimated $3bn (£1.5bn), according to media network ZenithOptimedia.

China itself will be responsible for an estimated $1bn of the spend surrounding the games, with $2bn spent across the rest of the world.

ZenithOptimedia has also predicted that next summer's Euro 2008 football tournament and the US Presidential election will also draw in a combined advertising expenditure of $3bn.

Together these events will boost global adspend growth from 5.5% in 2007 to 6.4% in 2008, "comfortably above the 5.1% annual growth rate the ad market has averaged for the last ten years", according to the network.

ZenithOptimedia said it expects Western Europe to outperform North America throughout 2007 to 2009, after nine years of underperformance, with particularly encouraging signs of recovery in Germany and the UK.

It said that from 2006 to 2007 the North American market rose by 3.5% year-on-year, with the figure for Western Europe jumping by 4.2%.

The media network predicts that the total advertising spend for 2007 across newspapers, magazines, television, radio, cinema, outdoor and the internet in North America will total $188bn, with Western Europe accounting for $108bn of an estimated $460bn global advertising spend.

ZenithOptimedia said that the UK's television market appears to have reached the bottom of its trough in mid-2007 and should exhibit modest growth in the third quarter, though it will be flat at best for the full year.

According to the network, the German advertising market expanded by 4% in 2006 -- its fastest growth since 2000, and its first growth at above the rate of inflation.

It also said that it was finding it increasingly difficult to track global online spend, which had grown six times faster than traditional media between 2006 and 2009, increasing its share of the worldwide advertising market from 6.1% to 9.4%.