US total ad spending declined 0.3% in the first quarter of 2007 compared with the year-earlier period, with the Top 3 US advertisers were among those cutting spending the most, according TNS Media Intelligence estimates, reports MediaPost.
Top-ranked advertiser Procter & Gamble reduced ad spend 8.6%, to $722.7 million. In second place, AT&T cut ad spend 19.2%; third-place General Motors slashed ad spend 30.9%, TNS said.
In the Top 10, only fourth-place Verizon, fifth-place Ford and eighth-place Sprint Nextel upped spend – 5.9%, 3.0% and 7.8%, respectively – according to TNS.
Only six of the 19 measured media registered year-over-year gains in the first quarter, TNS said. Among major media:
- Online display advertising spend grew 16.7%, to $2.7 billion.
- Consumer magazines advanced 7.1% to $5.17 billion.
- Cable Network expenditures were up 6.3% to $3.82 billion.
- Network TV ad spending tumbled 7.2% to $6.05 billion
- Spot TV expenditures slipped 4.1% to $3.74 billion.
- Expenditures for Local Newspapers fell 4.6% to $5.39 billion
- Radio spending declined 2.1% to $2.29 billion.
Internet display advertising surged to 7.7% of total expenditures, up from 6.6% a year ago. Magazines gained 0.9 share points and finished the period at 19.2% of ad spending, swapping places in the rankings with Newspapers, which lost 0.8 points. Television lost 1.1 share points but still accounted for 44.6% of all expenditures.
The Top 10 advertising categories in the first quarter of 2007 spent an aggregate $16.74 billion, down 1.1% from a year ago, TNS said:
- Financial Services was the top category at $2.11 billion, an increase of 3.1%.
- Direct Response had the largest percentage gain, up 11.3% to $1.70 billion.
- Telecommunications category spending dropped 7.6% to $2.10 billion.
- Continued weakness in ad spending by local dealers and dealer associations pushed Domestic Auto down 10.8% to $1.67 billion and Non-Domestic Auto down 4.1% to $1.82 billion.
- Automotive advertising has declined for seven consecutive quarters.
- Travel & Tourism advertising fell 5.0% to $1.25 billion.
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