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15.9.2010 Major brand owners boost adspend in US

Major brand owners including Procter & Gamble, AT&T and General Motors posted double-digit increases in their US adspend during the first half of 2010, according to a new study. Kantar Media, the research firm, estimatedthat advertising revenues climbed 5.7% to $63.6bn (€49.2bn; £41.1bn) year-on-year in the opening six months of 2010. Television delivered an increase of 10%, incorporating a rise of 25.1% for spot TV and 14.6% for Spanish-language ads, assisted by the World Cup in June. Cable returns jumped 8.8%, a figure surpassing 7% for networks, although the syndicated national category experienced an 11.7% contraction.
 

Funds allotted to free standing inserts rose 7.6%, a pace of acceleration coming in at 6.3% for radio, 2.8% for out-of-home and 1.6% for magazines. Newspaper ad sales dropped 3%, largely as local titles endured a 4.6% decline, offsetting gains elsewhere. Online display also registered an uptick of 5.3% year-on-year, with Google having outlined the ambition of driving up demand in this area. Spending by the top 100 advertisers rose 9.7% to $29.3bn, growth reaching only 1.4% among the "long-tail" of brand owners outside the top 1,000. Within this, the ten biggest advertisers increased their collective outlay by 11.5% to $8.4bn, measured against $7.5bn in the same period last year.
 

Procter & Gamble, the FMCG giant, led the rankings on $1.5bn, a 31.1% surge on an annual basis, as the manufacturer of Tide and Pampers sought to back a wide-ranging innovation program. AT&T, the telecoms group, took second on $1.1bn, a leap of 14.1%, while automaker General Motors, in third, enhanced its media expenses by 45.6% to slightly over $1bn. Communications specialist Verizon, in fourth, produced a similar total after trimming its expenditure by 12.3%, a strategy Johnson & Johnson also employed, off 11.2% to $709m. News Corp improved 5.8% to $700.9m, with Pfizer, on $649m, heightening its activity by 16.3%, but Time Warner was down 1.5% on $571m.
 

Toyota boosted its advertising output by 23.3% to $528m, and rival carmaker Ford supported an expansion of 12.2% to $524m. As such, these firms contributed to the 23.4% increase generated by the automotive industry in its entirety, as manufacturers invested $3.9bn and dealers a further $2.2bn. Telecoms expenditure rose 2.8% to $4.4bn, with local services up 5.5% as category outgoings hit $3.9bn. Financial services continued on the path of recovery following a nadir during the economic downturn, and advertising costs grew by 11.3% to $3.8bn.
 

Food and confectionary brands allocated 9.5% more resources to this area in H1, as did retailers – excluding department stores, home furnishing and building suppliers – taking both sectors to $3.3bn. Personal care spending climbed 11.8% to $2.9bn, just ahead of restaurants, where outlay remained essentially static, while travel and tourism was off 7.9% on $2.2bn. Finally, the average hour of prime time viewing contained 9.5 minutes of "brand appearances" alongside over 14 minutes of network commercial messages the timeframe under assessment. Coca-Cola, 24 Hour Fitness Center, Yamaha Music Equipment, Chef Revival and Starter were the brands with the most airtime in shows, according to Kantar Media.

B.L. 15.9.2010