UN Unilever NV

It will take another two years until the advertising industry returns to pre-crisis growth levels, even if the recovery came earlier than expected, the chief executive of Ogilvy & Mather, a unit of WPP PLC (WPP.LN), said Thursday.

"We thought the recovery would come in the third quarter of this year but it really came in the first quarter," Miles Young said at the Cannes advertising festival.

The New-York based agency had a strong first five months of the year, driven mainly by growth in the U.S. and big clients becoming more proactive about investing again and thinking about longer-term strategies, said Young. "We're back to positive numbers," he said.

Consumer good companies are the ones that have picked up the most, but also the IT sector, according to the CEO. Ogilvy & Mather's largest clients include International Business Machines Corp (IBM), Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) and Unilever NV (UN).

Part of the return of ad spending is linked to a new generation of chief marketing officers who are keen to grow their businesses and are bolder about using new marketing and advertising tools. "Pitch activity is hotting up again as companies need our help to grow."

Despite the improvements, it may not be until 2012 until the industry is back to what it was before mid-2008, when revenues started to tumble as firms across the globe cut back on media spend, Young said. "But it will. The industry has always bounced back."

-By Ruth Bender, Dow Jones Newswires; +33 1 40 17 17 54; ruth.bender@dowjones.com

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