• Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required), Monday, May 22, 2006 1 PM

Marketers are spending more to advertise their products and services in China than ever before, and the media marketer there may be poised for explosive growth, reports Nielsen Media Research. According to Nielsen, ad spending in China increased 25 percent, to $10.3 billion, in the first quarter of 2006. Categories showing the most growth included wedding products such as jewelry and baby products like diapers. Ads for cars, credit cards and cell phone services also shot up. The figures are significant because they don't even include spending on Internet and outdoor ads, two increasingly important marketing channels in China. It's also interesting to note that the first quarter uptick follows a year in which ad spending growth cooled considerable compared to previous years. In 2005, ad spending in China grew 18 percent from 2004, when it was up 22 percent from 2003. In 2003, it grew 39 percent from the year before. One factor in this year's ad-spending increase is the sharp criticism Washington has leveled at China for exporting much more to the U.S. than it imports. As part of its response to that criticism, and for the health of its own economy, China in recent months has been encouraging domestic consumer spending--for example, by cutting taxes--and advertisers are going after those consumers.

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