So, I''m not going to tell you that there is a specific tie to it. I think, a lot of our spend can be spent the way that MasterCard believes that it can encourage our customers to have really good business going forward.
The one thing that we are very focused on, not only here for the second half of 2009, but also for, as we''re walking through the budget process of 2010, in terms of what we''re really doing for our growth markets and how we are changing some of the makeup in terms of where we''re spending our marketing between the more mature markets and the more growth markets and we obviously hear a lot of, from our customers in order to make sure that we align appropriately.
Tim Willi - Wells Fargo Securities
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of David Parker with Lazard Capital Markets. Please proceed.
David Parker - Lazard Capital Markets
Good morning. Thank you. Can you just provide a little more color around that previous question? Just specifically on the marketing split between the mature markets, as well as the high growth markets? You mentioned that going forward you''re going to be spending more in those high growth areas, but for the first three quarters, have you been spending less in the emerging markets or is it more on the developed markets that you''ve been spending less on?
Robert Selander
As you can see, David, in the first three quarters of the year, our global marketing, advertising and marketing spend is down approximately 30% over the 2008 or below the 2008 levels. We''ve clearly reallocated funds into areas that are opportunities for us. That could happen with a particular customer or program in a given market that may not be doing as well economically as another market.
So, it''s hard to parse these things and obviously since we don''t share geographic specific advertising and marketing spending, although, you can get media, measured media reports in various parts of the world, you can, I think, assume that overtime more of our marketing spend will go to growth opportunities than to those areas that are struggling. And that can be true with any market, which doesn''t look like it has underlying robust economic growth, or more logically in those areas where we see more rapid growth, emerging and developing markets specifically.
David Parker - Lazard Capital Markets
Okay. Thank you. And then just on the U.S.A.A. win, can you talk about when you expect them to migrate over to your platform and how many cards do you expect them to represent? Thank you.
Martina Hund-Mejean
David, it''s Martina. Typically, we do not give out those kind of details. We have some impact on the financial statements, that''s typically when we say what is happening from a customer implementation point of view. As you can appreciate, that is a big rollout, it''s a big migration onto our world class debit platform, so you can appreciate that it will take a little bit of time to accomplish this.
David Parker - Lazard Capital Markets
Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Chris Brendler with Stifel Nicolaus. Please proceed.
Chris Brendler - Stifel Nicolaus
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