GroupM predicts 3.5 per cent growth in media spend

GroupM is the world's largest media billing network. Owned by Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP Group, it handles media spend for clients including Unilever, HSBC, Ford, Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline and Dell.

According to the company's well-regarded 'This Year, Next Year' report, media spend for this year will now reach US$451 billion, with a further hike of 4.5 per cent worldwide during 2011 to $471 billion.

Asia-Pacific is predicted to leap in advertising spend by 8.2 per cent in 2010 to $131 billion, a rate that eases during 2011 to 6.6 per cent, settling at a figure of $140 billion.

Media spend in North Asia is expected to increase by 13.5 per cent to $55 billion in 2010. In 2011 the rate will decrease to 8.3 per cent and $59 billion.

For the ASEAN and Middle East/ Africa regions, media spend is forecast to grow 18.5 per cent to $13 billion and 8.2 per cent to $15 billion this year, respectively. In 2011, ASEAN is expected to grow with 13 per cent to $15 billion and Middle East/ Africa to $16 billion, jumping 6.7 per cent.

In the US, media spend is expected to decline 1.3 per cent in 2010 to $145 billion, down from the $147 billion spent in 2009, which represented a 7 per cent drop from the previous year. In 2011, US ad spending is projected to increase 2.5 per cent to $149 billion.

The recession has not impacted internet ad spending, except in a handful of highly stressed markets, adding 10 per cent to its measured total in 2009, according to the author of the report Adam Smith.

Smith said, "What continues to power the medium is the steady advance in creativity, analysis and technology, which embeds digital in almost all marketing activity.

Measured internet added two points of global ad share in each of 2007, 2008 and 2009, and we think it will sustain a rate of one point a year this year and next, to reach 16 per cent in 2011."

In 2009, GroupM held a 32.4 per cent share of the total measured volume among all global media agency networks. The network, which includes media agencies MediaCom, Mindshare, MEC and Maxus, billed $84 billion during 2009, according to official figures from media measurement company Recma.