Driven by strong economic performances and rapidly improving consumer confidence levels in the first quarter of 2010, media advertising activity across 12 Asia Pacific markets surged by 18 per cent – the second consecutive quarter of positive growth.

In the clearest sign yet that the region is accelerating out of recession, six of the ten most confident consumer markets globally are from Asia-Pacific and these are setting the pace of recovery, with positive consumer confidence level increases in the Q1 2010 Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index.

Richard Basil-Jones, managing director, Nielsen Media Asia Pacific, said: “In Q1 2010 global consumer confidence rebounded to the highest level since Q3 2007, however Asia-Pacific posted the highest increase in confidence of all regions – up eight points. The positive news for marketers is that Asia-Pacific consumers are already upbeat on how they will utilise their spare cash. Based on the most recent ad spending results, the outlook for main media advertising across the remainder of 2010 appears extremely positive in all 12 markets.”

Source: Nielsen