B2B ad spending totaled $14.39 billion in 2006, up 1.4% from $14.19 billion in 2005, and the top 100 B2B advertisers accounted for $6.76 billion (or 47%) of that amount, up 3.0% from $6.56 billion in 2005, according to BtoB’s analysis of data from TNS Media Intelligence.
According to BtoB’s analysis:
- Telecom led B2B ad spending in 2006:
- AT&T was the No. 1 B2B advertiser, spending an estimated $419.4 million, up 10.4% from the previous year.
- Verizon Communications was the No. 2 B2B advertiser; it spent an estimated $405.9 million on B2B advertising last year, up 8.7% from the previous year.
- Sprint-Nextel was the No. 3 B2B advertiser in 2006, spending $277.1 million, down 31.2% from 2005, when it spent $403.1 million to promote its new brand.
- High-tech companies were also high on the list of top B2B advertisers:
- IBM Corp. was No. 4, spending $236.3 million on B2B advertising, down 17.5% from 2005.
- Hewlett-Packard was the No. 5 B2B advertiser in 2006, with B2B ad spending of $219.6 million -Â up 5.8% over 2005.
- Microsoft was No. 6 in 2006; it spent an estimated $213.6 million on B2B advertising, down 0.6% from 2005.
- Monster Worldwide, FedEx Corp., Citigroup, and JP Morgan Chase & Co. rounded out the top 10 B2B advertisers of 2006.
- Among the host of B2B ad spenders increasing their budgets last year was Apple, which increased its B2B ad spend 350.2% to $85.0 million, moving from No. 115 in 2005 to No. 24 in 2006.
- Dow Chemical increased its B2B ad spend 481.8%, to $61.2 million, moving to No. 33 from No. 195 the previous year.
The BtoB report also ranks the top 50 B2B internet advertisers of 2006:
- Monster Worldwide was No. 1. It increased B2B internet ad spend 79.6% from 2005, to $101.6 million.
- HP was No. 2, boosting its B2B online ad spending 10.7%, to $60.9 million.
- Vonage Holdings Corp., was No. 3, decreasing its B2B iternet ad spending 32.7%. to $46.4 million.
- Other top 10 B2B Internet advertisers last year were IT career site Dice Inc., Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, AT&T, Microsoft, Capital One Financial Corp. and CareerBuilder.
Internet ad spending by B2B advertisers increased 17.0% from 2005, reaching $1.38 billion in 2006, BtoB said.
BtoB’s special report is available in pdf format, here.
