MUMBAI: For the advertising industry, 2012 closed on a positive note with ad spends increasing 3.2 per cent globally year-over-year to $557 billion, according to Nielsen’s quarterly Global AdView Pulse report.

A strong third quarter, which saw growth of 4.3 per cent, helped drive the annual increase. Ad spend growth receded to a more modest 2.5 per cent in the fourth quarter.

All regions except Europe increased their ad spending in 2012. The Middle East/African market showed impressive growth of 14.6 per cent for the year as the region’s economy stabilized. Egypt was part of that turnaround, registering a 20.4 per cent increase in spending. Meanwhile, deep cuts to ad budgets continued in Europe, fueling a 5.3 per cent decrease for the final quarter, yielding an annual decrease of 4.2 per cent. Even economic powerhouse Germany reported a one per cent dip in the fourth quarter, the second consecutive quarter during which the country reported a decline in advertising spend.

The Asian-Pacific market underperformed as well, as its annual increase in ad spend fell from 11.5 per cent in 2011 to a mere 2.8 per cent in 2012, propelled in part by China’s very slight gain of 1.9 per cent for the year.

Ad spending in North America remained on an upward trajectory at the end of the year, climbing 3.1 per cent in the fourth quarter. This helped the region report 4.6 per cent growth for the full year.