The global advertising market will bottom out in the current quarter, one of the world's largest media agencies predicts in a report released on Monday.
ZenithOptimedia, part of Publicis Groupe, the French marketing company, has held its forecasts steady for the second half of 2009, after several quarters of slashing its outlook, “as signs emerge that the downturn is approaching its lowest point”.
While the first quarter of 2009 was worse than expected, the decline has slowed in the second, Zenith said. It expects global advertising revenues to fall 8.5 per cent this year to $456bn, with a “mild” global recovery of 1.6 per cent growth in 2010.