• March 8, 2011

Global Internet ad spending is projected to rise 12.7% in 2011, nearly twice the rate of expansion of the next fastest growing major media - outdoor and, television (each projected to rise 4.8%) - and the overall growth for the world's 12 major advertising markets (+4.6%), according to a global ad spending forecast released this morning by U.K.-based Warc (the Worldwide Advertising Research Center). The forecast also projects that worldwide ad spending will rise 5.5 in 2012.

The report says the figures reflect the "continued rebound from the global advertising recession of 2009," and that the two main drivers in the ad industry's economic recovery have been emerging markets and the "prolonged rise of Internet advertising."

Warc said the U.S. remains the world's largest advertising market, and that based on current trends, has gotten off to the "best start of any decade since the 1980s." The report forecasts that the U.S. ad economy will expand 3.5% in 2011 and 4.5% in 2012.

The only media that are expected to contract globally in 2011 are print-based media, including newspapers (-0.8%) a d magazines (-0.4%).