Although markets such as mainland China, Indonesia and the Philippines are continuing to experience explosive double-digit growth, comparing the first three months of this year with the same time last year, others have slowed dramatically.
"What's clear to me is the fact that you can't talk about this as one region," commented Richard Basil-Jones, Asia-Pacific managing director of Nielsen Media Research. "It is misleading to do so. There are stories within stories."
In comparison with the buoyancy enjoyed by certain markets, with Hong Kong and Malaysia also recording healthy increases, growth in Thailand, currently in the throes of an economic downturn, has slowed to one per cent, while Singapore, Taiwan and India have joined South Korea in seeing the amount of money invested in ad placements go down.
Despite the negative results in some markets, agencies should interpret this a correction in the rate of growth rather than the onset of a downturn, Basil-Jones said.
The figures are compiled from adspend on free-to-air television, newspapers and magazines, representing up to 90 per cent of regional advertising spend.
These findings show that regional analysts, including Nielsen, will have to pay far more attention to sub-regional developments in the future, Basil-Jones added.
"There is no consistent trend," he said. "There is no consistency across Asia-Pacific."
Nielsen's report, which covers most major Asia-Pacific markets but excludes Japan and Vietnam, showed that China alone accounted for half of free TV and print spend, underlining the massive gravitational pull the country exerts on regional data.
By contrast, India, tipped to become the region's second powerhouse economy, only represents four per cent of spend, with its quarterly spend down following last year's general election.
Most sectors in India are spending more but decreases in expenditure in corporate branding, motorcycles and detergent -- all among the 10 biggest spending categories for the beginning of the year -- dragged the total down.
Mainland China on the other hand displayed a 25 per cent rise in adspend, mainly powered by numerous new product launches and heavy spending by consumer goods brands.