Latin Ads: Better Than Expected

Crisis or no crisis, Latin America will see higher ad spending than expected this and next year and in 2009 will be the fastest-growing advertising market worldwide, according to ZenithOptimedia.

The London-based ad agency expects advertising expenditure to reach $34 billion in Latin America in 2009, an increase of 14.9 percent from this year. No other region will grow as much, it forecasts. Africa/Middle East, the second-fastest growth area, will expand ad expenditure by 11.2 percent.

This year will likely end with regional ad spending of $29.6 billion, an increase of 12.1 percent from last year and the best result anywhere worldwide. Markets like the United States and Western Europe, meanwhile, will see declines this and next year.

The new 2008 and 2009 figures are better than ZenithOptimedia previously had forecast. In May, for example, it predicted that 2009 ad expenditure in Latin America would reach $31.9 billion, while 2008 spending would end up at $29.0 billion.

Meanwhile, GroupM – another London-based ad company – predicts that Latin America’s ad market will reach $21.6 billion in 2009 – an increase of 8.1 percent from this year. According to GroupM, only North Asia and the Middle East and Africa will grow more.

BRAZIL LEADS