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Industry Trends

Top U.S. Advertiser Budgets

By October 18, 2007July 30th, 2023One Comment

In the United States of America, advertising spend for the top 10 companies in the first half of 2007 reached $8.3 billion. The Nielsen Company recently reported that this number was down 7.3 per cent from the same period in 2006, though the overall ad spending for all monitored U.S companies was down just 0.5 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Advertising spend grew strongly in some media and declined in others. Internet advertising was the clear winner, unsurprisingly, with a 23.2 per cent increase in the first half of 2007 versus the same period in 2006. Other gainers were national magazines, U.S. national Sunday supplements, outdoor, spot TV markets 101-200 and Spanish-language TV.

Network radio advertising showed the greatest decline year upon year, falling 8.5 per cent from the first half of 2006. The Internet advertising numbers do not include paid search advertising. Had PPC advertising numbers been included, the disparity between network radio and Internet advertising growth would have been much starker.
Seven out of the top 10 advertisers in the USA decreased their advertising expenditure in the first half of 2007. General Motors and AT&T were the two companies with the most drastic ad expenditure cuts. GM axed more than a quarter of their budget as advertising for many truck brands was reduced.

Advertiser spending for the Top Parent Companies is shown in the graph below:

Top 10 US Advertiser Spend

Source: Nielsen Monitor-Plus

Pharmaceuticals, motion pictures, wireless telephone services and direct response services were the only categories in the top 10 where advertiser spending increased this year. The increases ranged from 1% to 6%. The automotive sector showed the greatest decline (10%) in advertising budgets.