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Nielsen has just published a report showing that ad investment in Latin America increased 48% in the first quarter of 2010.  The U.S., the country with the biggest ad market, also saw an increase, though only 4%.

Investment in all global ad markets reached 100 billion dollars, and the main drivers of this investment were the Winter Olympics and the World Cup in South Africa.

Nevertheless, Nielsen also warns in the study that the results should be read with caution, since these figures are the result of comparing current investment with the numbers from 2009, when the recession caused a drastic drop in global advertising budgets.

“After 18 consecutive months, the industry has finally turned the corner to enter positive terrain”, according to Michele Strazzera, Deputy Managing Director at Nielsen Global AdView.

In terms of different media, television still has the largest market share in terms of ad investment, with an increase of 16% during the aforementioned period. It seems that many companies still have not changed their modus operandi and have not taken advantage of the crisis to change.