One of the world’s biggest advertising and media services organizations, Publicis, in reported relatively strong third quarter results this morning signaled concern over the weakening global economy and the effect that it will have on advertising.

Publicis indicated that digital media will remain the sweet spot.

“Our digital businesses and our investments in high growth economies are continuing to sustain our growth in an economic environment that has become harsher as the worsening financial crisis impacts the real economy,” Publicis Chairman-CEO Maurice Levy said

“In this context where growth will essentially come from digital and emerging markets, Publicis Groupe should improve its position against its main competitors.”

“Digital is a new world and we should not compare digital to what digital was in 2000,” he said. “In 2000 digital was mainly Web sites and some funny things and obviously when the market collapsed, everything collapsed. Today there is the Google of the world, there is the Yahoo of the world, and the MSN and we are all looking for addressing the communication to the end users through search and through different ways of communication. And this communication is highly measured – we know if it is working or not, we know the return on investment immediately, we know what works and what doesn’t work. So I don’t see digital collapsing, I don’t see digital going down, I see digital still growing in 2009 and the years to come.”

Good to hear.

We agree.

Digital advertising will continue to grow, although at a slower growth level seen over the last couple of years.

However the Internets presence will only grow stronger in light of a weak economy and all those involved should perform better than there brick and mortar counterparts.