• by December 6, 2004

All signs point to China as a major driver of global advertising growth in 2005.

That's according to Publicis Groupe's ZenithOptimedia, which today reports that it expects global ad spending to increase by 5 percent next year and that China is on course to become the third largest advertising market by 2011.

China's advertising market is estimated at $9 billion today, but Zenith estimates that it will swell to $12 billion in 2006 and $18 billion by 2011. If the $18 billion figure bears out, China's ad spending will have roared past that of France, Britain, and Germany, and be only slightly behind Japan and the United States.

China looks to be the next great economy and the next great advertising economy.

Elsewhere, Zenith projects that ad spending for North America in 2005 will jump by 4.1 percent to $174.8 billion; European ad spending will increase 4.5 percent to $98.6 billion; Latin America will jump 4.9 percent to $16.7 billion; while Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere will increase 12.8 percent to $18.1 billion.

While Zenith says that TV will account for the lion's share of the advertising market with a 37.6 percent share through 2007 (no big surprise there), the Web is the fastest growing advertising media. I think we heard Zenith and other forecasters prognosticate on this a few weeks ago. Online advertising is expected to surpass outdoor advertising by the end of the decade.

Better get cracking.