Recent figures released by Nielsen Monitor-Plus reveal that while U.S. Advertising Spending grew just 0.6% in 2007, Internet ad spending grew 18.9%, making it the strongest category for the year.
Other media categories that saw growth included National Magazines (7.6%), Outdoor (7.2%), National Sunday Supplements (4.9%), National Cable TV (2.2%), and Spanish-Language TV (1.5%). The Outdoor medium saw an increase for the fifth consecutive year.
National Newspaper saw a decline of 7.7% in spending, while Local Newspaper saw a drop off of 7.5%. Meanwhile, Spot TV Markets 1-100 realized a decline of 5.1%, Local Sunday Supplements saw a decrease of 4.9% in spending, and Business-to-Business Magazines saw spending fall 4.0%.
The freefall that ad spending in newspapers is experiencing in the U.S. seems to be anomalous in the global perspective. Every other country measured by Nielsen saw growth in this advertising medium.
The Newspaper Association of America recently revealed that total newspaper revenues declined 7.9% in 2007 to $45.37 billion. This showed what many feared: an accelerated drop off. In 2006, revenues decreased just 0.32%. While online revenues grew 18.8%, to $3.16 billion, it appears that growth in that area is stagnating. Online revenues grew 31.46% in 2006.
The overall growth of 0.6% for the U.S. was dwarfed by the ad spending increases observed in the Asia-Pacific (12.1%) and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) (almost 5%).
The top 10 U.S. companies accounted for $17.9 billion in ad spending in 2007, which was $688 million less than the total spent in 2006, and a 4% decline. Proctor & Gamble Co., Verizon Communications, and AT&T were the only three of the top 10 companies to actually increase their ad spending in 2007. General Motors decreased their spending the most.
Spending in the top 10 product categories amounted to $44.6 billion in 2007, a decline of $1.5 billion compared to 2006, or a drop off of 3%. Automotive/Auto Dealer Assoc. was the biggest category and also saw the biggest decrease in spending (11%). Financial-Investment Services increased its spending by 14%, while Wireless Telephone Services increased its spending by 12%.
The number of product placement occurrences in prime-time broadcast network programming increased 13% in 2007. American Idol led the way with 4,349 occurrences, which helped Coca-Cola, whose brand image is constantly shown on the cups the three judges sip on throughout the show.
Sources:
http://www.nielsen.com/media/2008/pr_080331b.html
http://www.nielsen.com/media/2008/pr_080331b_download.pdf
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=79526
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