Global advertising rose 8.8% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2011 and television advertising posted the largest year-on-year gains, increasing its share of the pie among other traditional media like radio, newspapers and magazines by 11.9%, according to the new Nielsen Global AdView Pulse report. Television advertising increased from 63.5 percent to 65.3 percent in both developed and many emerging economies. Randall Beard, Global Head of Advertiser Solutions for Nielsen, said that this is because “TV remains the most important and cost effective advertising medium for companies looking to reach new consumers, especially in booming emerging markets”. Beard added, “according to two Nielsen reports released last month, women globally said they preferred to find out information on new products and services via television more than any other medium, and the Q1 Nielsen Cross-Platform Report showed that Americans are watching more TV than ever before.” By region, Asia-Pacific and Latin America posed the largest year-on-year gains overall at +12.4% and + 11% respectively. In contrast, Western Europe posted the lowest growth rate of all global regions in Q1 at 2.9 percent as the region’s divergent economic performance sent ad spend in Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain into negative territory.