For the first time, this quarterly report from Kantar Media includes paid search advertising expenditures. Search advertising has been incorporated on a like-for-like basis for 2011 and 2010 time periods.

“Advertising grew at a slower rate in the second quarter, contributing to speculation about the durability of an advertising recovery that is into its second year,” said Jon Swallen, SVP Research at Kantar Media North America. “Key ad spend indicators are painting a mixed picture. On one hand, a majority of media types actually improved their performance from Q1 to Q2. On the other, spending growth for the Top 100 advertisers stalled in Q2 and the ad market became more dependent on the comparatively smaller budgets of mid-sized advertisers as the main source of growth.”

Measured Ad Spending By Media

Internet media accounted for more than one-half of the dollar gain in total ad expenditures during the first six months of the year. Display spending jumped 12.9 percent and search investments rose 8.6 percent as each benefitted from a surge of money from the travel, local service and insurance categories.

Within the television sector, expenditures on cable networks increased 11.8 percent during the first half of the year while network TV spending fell 7.6 percent. One factor shaping these results was the shift of BCS college football bowl games and NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament programming from broadcast networks to cable, producing a large, one-time transfer of ad dollars. Supplementing this was a reallocation of TV budgets from network to cable within the prescription drug, financial service and consumer package goods categories.

Syndication TV expenditures surged 18.5 percent, reflecting more hours of monitored programming and larger budgets from auto insurers and consumer package goods marketers. Spanish Language TV had a 1.7 percent increase in first-half spending as declines from bellwether telecom advertisers were offset by expanded budgets from a few financial service providers. Outlays on Spot TV fell by 0.9 percent, reflecting weakness from the telecom category and a slowdown in Q2 spending by auto manufacturers.

Outdoor (+11.8 percent) was paced by healthy increases from local service businesses, banks and TV media outlets. Consumer Magazine ad spending pulled back in Q2 and finished the half year period up 4.0 percent. Prescription drug advertising in magazines picked up during the spring months but these gains were neutralized by cutbacks from auto manufacturers.

The pace of spending in Radio media remained soft throughout the first six months of 2011. Local Radio was up 2.4 percent compared to a year ago and National Spot Radio fell by 1.6 percent.

Newspaper media continued to lag the overall market, dragged down by National Newspapers (-4.9 percent) and Spanish Language Newspapers (-5.9 percent). However, the Local Newspaper segment ended its streak of 22 consecutive quarters of spending declines and eked out a 2.5 percent increase in Q2 and a 0.6 percent gain for the half year.

Percent Change in Measured Ad Spending¹

Source: Kantar Media

1. Figures are based on the Kantar Media Stradegy™ multimedia ad expenditure database across all measured media, including: Network TV (5 networks); Spot TV (125 DMAs); Cable TV (71 networks); Syndication TV; Hispanic Network TV (4 networks); Consumer Magazines (204 publications); Sunday Magazines (8 publications); Local Magazines (29 publications); Hispanic Magazines (18 publications); Business-to-Business Magazines (332 publications); Local Newspapers (142 publications); National Newspapers (3 publications); Hispanic Newspapers (46 publications); Network Radio (5 networks); National Spot Radio (205 markets); Local Radio (32 markets);Internet search (Google search engine); Internet display (2,087 sites monitored at least one year); and Outdoor. Figures do not include public service announcements (PSA) or house advertising

2. Cable TV figures based on 67 English language networks and do not include any Hispanic cable networks

3. Spot TV figures based on 662 English language stations and do not include any Hispanic stations

4. Spanish Language TV includes 4 Hispanic broadcast networks, 4 Hispanic cable network and 71 local Hispanic TV stations

5. Internet search figures reflect paid activity on Google

6. Magazine media includes Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) data and reflect print editions of publications

7. Newspaper media figures reflect print editions of publications

8. Local Radio includes expenditures for 32 markets in the U.S.

9. FSI data represents distribution costs only

Measured Ad Spending By Advertiser

Spending among the ten largest advertisers in the first six months of 2011 was $8,218.4 million, a 0.5 percent decrease compared to a year ago. Among the Top 100 marketers, a diversified group accounting for more than two-fifths of all measured ad expenditures, budgets rose a miniscule 0.8 percent.

Procter & Gamble maintained its top-ranked position with spending of $1,382.8 million, down 7.8 percent. The company has been shifting budgets into Spanish language media and Internet display at the expense of Consumer Magazines, Network TV and Cable TV.

AT&T was the second largest advertiser for the half year period with expenditures of $1,129.5 million, a decline of 2.6 percent. Since the March 2011 announcement of its agreement to purchase T-Mobile, AT&T ad spending has slowed sharply. At competitor Verizon Communications, first-half ad budgets were $808.7 million, a decrease of 22.5 percent and the biggest percentage decline among the Top Ten marketers.

Whereas four automotive manufacturers landed in the Top Ten for the first quarter, only two accomplished that feat for the half year interval. Chrysler Group hiked ad budgets by 58.7 percent to $621.1 million, the largest rate of increase among the Top Ten. Spending was bolstered by several marketing introductions for new and redesigned models. General Motors reduced its six-month expenditures by 13.3 percent, to $924.6 million. The proportion of GM’s ad budget earmarked towards passenger cars, as opposed to SUVs and pickups trucks, continues to expand and is now at its highest level in more than four years.

L’Oreal investments rose 25.0 percent to $626.3 million. Comcast (+35.1 percent to $884.5 million) and Time Warner (+6.7 percent to $618.2 million) also upped their ad budgets. Results for both companies were driven by their movie studio divisions.

Top Ten Advertisers Of Jan-June 2011¹

Source: Kantar Media

1. Figures do not include FSI, House Ads or PSA activity

2. The sum of the individual companies can differ from the total shown due to rounding

Measured Ad Spending By Category

Expenditures for the ten largest categories grew 4.8 percent in the first half of 2011 to $40,982.7 million.

Automotive was the top category with $6,870.2 million of spending in the six month period, up 9.3 percent. However, after a torrid first quarter auto marketers hit the brakes and Q2 expenditures inched forward by only 0.8 percent. It was a complex environment with Toyota and Honda suffering post-earthquake inventory disruptions; wavering consumer confidence; reduced marketing incentives from manufacturers; and a slowing rate of new vehicle sales across the industry.

The Local Services category had the strongest rate of growth among the Top Ten with a 10.0 percent increase to $4,876.6 million. This performance is consistent with the category’s weighting towards mid-sized advertisers, a segment that has been spending robustly.

Escalating competition among credit card marketers was the catalyst for a 5.6 percent jump in Financial Services expenditures, to $4,647.7 billion. The Travel & Tourism category entered the Top Ten with outlays of $2,927.1 million (+6.0 percent) as marketers launched campaigns targeting the peak spring and summer travel seasons.

After an extended run-up, expenditure growth rates for package goods categories are falling back. Food & Candy was down 1.1 percent to $3,268.7 million. Ad spending for Personal Care Products slowed in Q2 but still finished the half year up 9.9 percent to $3,253.1 million.

Top Ten Advertising Categories Of Jan-June 2011¹

Source: Kantar Media

1. Figures do not include FSI or PSA activity

2. Miscellaneous Retail excludes these retail segments: Department Stores, Home Furnishing & Building Supply Stores

3. The sum of the individual categories can differ from the total shown due to rounding

Finishing just outside the Top Ten in dollar volume but with the largest gain of any category was Insurance. Its spending leaped 25.2 percent, propelled by a select group of auto insurers intensifying their battle for market share. Their need for differentiated and winning messages led to a variety of brand positions around the selling points of price, policy features and customer service. A special report from Kantar Media’s creative monitoring service analyzing auto insurers’ message strategies is available here.

Top Spending Advertisers Within Select Media

The top ten TV advertisers spent $5,165.5 million in the medium during the first half of 2011, down 1.7 percent from a year ago. This group accounted for 15.7 percent of total TV expenditures by all advertisers.

Top Ten Television Advertisers¹ Of Jan-June 2011

Source: Kantar Media

1 Figures do not include PSA activity

2 The sum of the individual companies can differ from the total shown due to rounding

The ten largest Internet advertisers invested a total of $1,323.5 million in search and display campaigns, up 24.9 percent versus a year ago. Despite fragmentation on the web, the group accounted for 11.1 percent share of all Internet ad dollars. The three leading wireless telecom providers each made the list along with a pair of financial advertisers.

Top Ten Internet Advertisers Of Jan-June 2011
(Display + Search)

Source: Kantar Media

1. The sum of the individual companies can differ from the total shown due to rounding

The top ten newspaper advertisers of January-June 2011 invested $1,254.1 million in the medium, a decrease of 4.2 percent. As a proportion of total newspaper ad spending by all advertisers, the top ten accounted for 14.9 percent. Auto dealerships were represented in the ranking with four spots and their increased spending amounts are contrary to the overall trend of declining newspaper expenditures.

Top Ten Newspaper Advertisers Of Jan-June 2011

Source: Kantar Media

1. The sum of the individual companies can differ from the total shown due to rounding

About Kantar Media

Established in more than in 50 countries, Kantar Media enables exploration of multimedia momentum through analysis of print, radio, TV, internet, social media, and outdoors worldwide. Kantar Media offers a full range of media insights and audience measurement services through its global business sectors – Intelligence, Audiences and TGI & Custom. Combining the deepest expertise in the industry, Kantar Media tracks more than 3 million brands and delivers insights to more than 22,000 customers around the world. (www.KantarMediaNA.com).

“The feel good headline is the ad economy grew by 6.5 percent in 2010,” said Jon Swallen, SVP Research at Kantar Media North America. “The more comprehensive assessment is that increased spending has not benefitted all sectors equally. While television media have recouped their losses from the 2009 advertising downturn, several other large segments are still 15 to 20 percent below their 2008 peaks.”

Measured Ad Spending By Media

TV ad spending remained robust through year end. Spot TV expenditures jumped 24.2 percent in 2010 due to the biennial surge in political advertising, a revived automotive category and a pronounced budget allocation shift among retail bank advertisers. Spanish Language TV spending rose 10.7 percent, assisted by the World Cup event. Higher sell out levels helped lift Cable TV expenditures by 9.8 percent and healthy demand from CPG marketers and credit card companies pushed Network TV spending ahead by 5.3 percent.

Internet display advertising increased 9.9 percent compared to the prior year, the second largest growth rate among media sectors. Outdoor advertising was close behind with a gain of 9.6 percent.

Improvements in Radio advertising were tilted towards local markets. National Spot Radio brought in 18.6 percent more ad dollars versus 2009 and Local Radio achieved a 4.9 percent increase. For each of these, higher spending was driven by the financial service, media and auto dealer categories.

Growth rates for print media trailed the overall ad market. Expenditures in Consumer Magazines were up a modest 3.3 percent while National Newspapers rose 2.7 percent, primarily due to publishing expansion at the Wall Street Journal. Ad spending in Local Newspapers sank 4.6 percent versus a year ago despite a small uptick in the volume of space sold. Local Newspaper spending has now declined for 21 consecutive quarters.

Source: Kantar Media
1. Figures tabulated from Kantar Media’s Stradegy™ application and cover all measured media, including: Network TV (6 networks); Spot TV (125 DMAs); Cable TV (67 English language networks); Syndication TV; Spanish Language TV (4 Hispanic broadcast networks; 4 Hispanic cable networks; 71 Hispanic local TV stations); Consumer Magazines (226 publications);Sunday Magazines (87 publications); Local Magazines (27 publications); Hispanic Magazines (14 publications); Business-to-Business Magazines (277 publications); Local Newspapers (147 publications); National Newspapers (3 publications); Hispanic Newspapers (48 publications); Network Radio (5 networks); National Spot Radio (205 markets); Local Radio (32 markets); Internet (1,883 sites); and Outdoor. Figures do not include public service announcements (PSA) or House ads.
2. Cable TV figures do not include Hispanic cable networks.
3. Spot TV figures do not include Hispanic local stations.
4. Spanish Language TV includes 4 Hispanic broadcast networks, 4 Hispanic cable network and 71 local Hispanic TV stations.
5. Magazine media includes Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) data and reflect print editions of publications.
6. Newspaper media figures reflect print editions of publications.
7. Internet display expenditures are based on 1,883 sites with reportable activity for an equal number of months in both time periods
8. FSI data represents distribution costs only

Measured Ad Spending By Advertiser

Spending among the ten largest advertisers in 2010 reached $16,345.8 million, a 3.7 percent increase compared to last year. Among the Top 100 marketers, a diversified group accounting for close to one-half of all measured ad expenditures, investments climbed 8.8 percent.

For the eighth consecutive year, Procter & Gamble was the top advertiser with spending of $3,123.9 million, up 17.7 percent compared to a year ago.

L’Oreal posted the largest rate of increase among the Top Ten with expenditures soaring 30.6 percent to $1,112.4 million. The company boosted marketing support broadly across its portfolio of mass market and prestige cosmetics brands.

Among auto manufacturers, Ford Motor upped its total ad budgets by 11.1 percent to $1,132.2 million. Rival General Motors reduced spending slightly, down 1.3 percent to $2,130.7 million. For both companies, exceptionally high levels of ad support in Q4 2009 timed to the leading edge of the auto sales rebound made for difficult comparisons in Q4 2010 and pulled down the full year growth rates.

AT&T raised expenditures by 12.1 percent, to $2,092.8 million as it continued to expand marketing efforts for its residential and mobile TV services. Verizon Communications trimmed ad spending 15.2 percent to $1,823.2 million.

Significant reductions were seen in the ad budgets of Pfizer (down 11.7 percent to $1,228.7 million) and Johnson & Johnson (down 7.5% to $1,139.7 million).

Source: Kantar Media
1.

Figures do not include FSI, House Ads or PSA activity.
2.
The sum of the individual companies may differ from the Total shown due to rounding.

Measured Ad Spending By Category

Expenditures for the ten largest advertising categories increased 6.5 percent and totaled $74,125.1 million.

Automotive was the leading category in both dollar volume and growth rate, finishing 2010 at $13,026.0 million, up 19.8 percent. Category spending grew almost twice as fast as new vehicle sales (19.8 percent versus 11.1 percent), reflecting a fiercely competitive marketing environment for manufacturers and dealers.

Telecom was the second largest category with 2010 budgets rising a modest 4.0 percent to $8,751.5 million. Lower spending by wireless carriers and satellite TV companies was offset by higher outlays from cable TV service providers.

Package goods advertising remained active at year end as a broad range of manufacturers sought to defend market share against value-priced store brands and generics. Expenditures for Personal Care Products were up 11.7 percent to $6,161.0 million and the Food & Candy category rose 7.1 percent to $6,672.3 million.

Ad spending for Financial Services increased 6.0 percent to $7,689.7 million. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, marketing activity has picked up noticeably for products related to debt (credit cards, consumer loans) while advertising budgets for savings related segments have lagged (investments, retail banking).

Only two of the Top Ten categories experienced year-over-year declines. Direct Response budgets fell by 5.8 percent to $6,143.5 million. Pharmaceutical expenditures dropped 8.2 percent to $4,327.8 million, the lowest dollar amount for this category since 2003.

Top Ten Advertising Categories: Full Year 2010 vs. Full Year 20091

Source: Kantar Media
1. Figures do not include FSI or PSA activity.
2. Miscellaneous Retail does not include these retail segments: Department Stores, Home Furnishing/Building Supply Stores.
3. The sum of the individual categories may differ from the total due to rounding.

Branded Entertainment

Kantar Media continuously monitors Branded Entertainment within network prime time and late night programming. The tracking identifies Brand Appearances and measures their duration and attributes. Given the short length of many Brand Appearances, duration is a more relevant metric than a count of occurrences for quantifying and comparing the gross amount of brand activity that viewers are potentially exposed to in the program versus the commercial breaks.

In the fourth quarter of 2010, an average hour of monitored prime time network programming contained six minutes, fifty seven seconds (6:57) of in-show Brand Appearances and 14:50 of network commercial messages. The combined total of 21:47 of marketing content represents 36 percent of a prime-time hour.

Unscripted reality programming had an average of 14:19 per hour of Brand Appearances as compared to just 4:50 per hour for scripted programs such as sitcoms and dramas. Late night network talk shows had an average of 10:31 per hour. The combined load of Brand Appearances and network ad messages in these late night shows was 25:22 per hour, or 42 percent of total content time.

Brand Appearances vs. Advertising: Q4 2010
(minutes:seconds per hour)

Source: Kantar Media
1 Figures include network advertisements, station promotions and PSAs. Local commercial time is excluded.

The top five brands ranked by total amount of Brand Appearance time were Chef Revival, Cybex exercise equipment, Yamaha music equipment, Bud Light beer and Asics footwear.

About Kantar Media

Established in more than 50 countries, Kantar Media helps clients master the world’s multimedia momentum through analysis of print, radio, TV, internet, cinema, mobile, social media, and outdoor worldwide. Kantar Media offers a full range of media insights and audience measurement services through its global business sectors – Intelligence, Audiences, TGI and Custom. Kantar Media companies also include Compete, Cymfony and SRDS. Drawing upon the deepest expertise in the industry, Kantar Media tracks more than 3 million brands and delivers insight to more than 22,000 customers worldwide.

“The advertising recovery expanded during the third quarter to include stronger participation by the long-tail of marketers beyond the Top 1000,” said Jon Swallen, SVP Research at Kantar Media. “Having fewer resources, this segment was previously cautious about raising budgets and it lagged behind the early year rebound in ad spending. Smaller advertisers are now as fully vested as their large counterparts and in that sense, the advertising recovery has reached a significant milestone.”

Measured Ad Spending By Media

Television media continued to pace the advertising recovery. Spot TV expenditures surged 27.8 percent behind the swell of political advertising and sustained demand from automotive marketers and retailers. Spanish Language TV spending rose 11.9 percent, aided by the World Cup event during June and July. Gains for Cable TV (+9.0 percent) and Network TV (+6.1 percent) were driven by sharply higher spending from the auto, financial service and consumer package goods categories.

Internet display advertising had the second largest growth rate among the media sectors, up 7.7 percent compared to the year ago period. Outdoor was close behind with a gain of 7.3 percent.

Within the Radio sector, all types achieved year-to-date growth. Spending in National Spot Radio jumped 15.9 percent and Local Radio rose 3.8 percent with each being paced by larger outlays from auto dealer and financial service advertisers. Network Radio registered a small increase of 1.7 percent.

Consumer Magazines, after a weak first quarter, rebounded solidly in subsequent months and year-to-date expenditures have risen 2.8 percent. Sunday Magazines (+8.1 percent) benefited from higher spending by pharmaceutical companies and home improvement retailers.

National Newspaper spending rose 6.8 percent, primarily from gains at the Wall Street Journal. Local Newspaper expenditures fell 4.4 percent despite stable volume of ad space sold. Local Newspaper spending has now declined for 20 consecutive quarters.

Source: Kantar Media
1. Figures tabulated from Kantar Media’s Stradegy™ application and cover all measured media, including: Network TV (6 networks); Spot TV (125 DMAs); Cable TV (71 networks); Syndication TV; Hispanic Network TV (4 networks); Consumer Magazines (226 publications);,Sunday Magazines (7 publications); Local Magazines (27 publications); Hispanic Magazines (19 publications); Business-to-Business Magazines (288 publications); Local Newspapers (147 publications); National Newspapers (3 publications); Hispanic Newspapers (48 publications); Network Radio (5 networks); National Spot Radio (205 markets); Local Radio (32 markets); Internet (1,989 sites); and Outdoor. Figures do not include public service announcements (PSA) or House ads.
2. Cable TV figures do not include Hispanic cable networks.
3. Spot TV figures do not include Hispanic local stations.
4. Spanish Language TV includes 4 Hispanic broadcast networks, 4 Hispanic cable network and 70 local Hispanic TV stations.
5. Magazine media includes Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) data and reflect print editions of publications.
6. Newspaper media figures reflect print editions of publications.
7. Internet display expenditures are based on 1,989 sites with measured activity for an equal number of months in both time periods
8. FSI data represents distribution costs only

Measured Ad Spending by Advertiser

Spending among the ten largest advertisers increased 5.9 percent to $11.91 billion in the first nine months of 2010.

Procter & Gamble maintained its number one ranking by spending $2,252.7 million, an 18.7 percent increase versus a year ago. However, its third quarter budgets were flat.

AT&T boosted expenditures 15.7 percent to $1,510.7 million. Much of the additional money was directed towards its consumer television service and this segment accounted for nearly one-tenth of the company’s ad dollars. Rival Verizon Communication cut its spending by 13.1 percent, to $1,406.8 million.

Despite a widespread surge in automotive category spending, General Motors was the lone auto advertiser in the Top Ten. GM invested $1,480.5 million, up 20.6 percent from a year ago.

Smaller increases were posted by News Corp. (+8.0 percent, to $984.8 million), General Electric (+5.4 percent, to $793.2 million) and Walt Disney (+4.0 percent to $776.9 million). Results for each of these companies were primarily shaped by their movie studio divisions.

Source: Kantar Media
1. Figures do not include FSI, House Ads or PSA activity.
2. The sum of the individual companies may differ from the Total shown due to rounding.

Across the Top 1000 advertisers, a diversified group representing three-fourths of the measured ad economy, expenditures rose 7.3 percent in the first nine months of the year. The comparable growth rate for the long-tail of small advertisers beyond the Top 1000 was just 3.3 percent. However, in the third quarter the respective figures for these two segments were very similar at 9.1 percent and 8.1 percent.

Measured Ad Spending by Category

Expenditures for the ten largest advertising categories rose 7.4 percent in the first nine months of 2010 and totaled $53.55 billion.

Automotive was the leading category in both dollar volume and growth rate as spending accelerated 23.7 percent to $9,151.5 million, reflecting the improved climate for vehicle sales. Within the category, manufacturers and dealers had comparable rates of increase.

Telecom was the second largest category with nine month expenditures growing a modest 4.7 percent to $6,369.4 million. Slowing rates of spend in the wireless segment were offset by vigorous competition and larger budgets among TV service providers.

Year-to-date spending in Financial Services increased 9.4 percent, to $5,604.6 million, although growth rates slackened in the third quarter. Results were skewed by a sustained marketing barrage from a handful of leading credit card issuers. More telling is the ongoing weakness in retail bank advertising and a recent slowdown by marketers of investment products.

Only two of the top ten categories posted spending declines. Direct Response budgets shrank by 6.2 percent, to $4,549.9 million. Pharmaceutical advertising was down 8.5 percent, to $3,160.9 million, on broad reductions across top spending brands.

Source: Kantar Media
1. Figures do not include FSI or PSA activity.
2. Miscellaneous Retail does not include these retail segments: Department Stores, Home Furnishing/Building Supply Stores.
3. The sum of the individual categories may differ from the total due to rounding.

Branded Entertainment

Kantar Media continuously monitors Branded Entertainment within network prime time and late night programming. The tracking identifies Brand Appearances and measures their duration and attributes. Given the short length of many Brand Appearances, duration is a more relevant metric than a count of occurrences for quantifying and comparing the gross amount of brand activity that viewers are potentially exposed to in the program versus the commercial breaks.

In the third quarter of 2010, an average hour of monitored prime time network programming contained nine minutes, four seconds (9:04) of in-show Brand Appearances and 14:47 of network commercial messages. The combined total of 23:51 of marketing content represents 40 percent of a prime-time hour.

Unscripted reality programming had an average of 11:10 per hour of Brand Appearances as compared to just 6:17 per hour for scripted programs such as sitcoms and dramas. Late night network talk shows had an average of 10:49 per hour. The combined load of Brand Appearances and network ad messages in these late night shows was 25:32 per hour, or 43 percent of total content time.

Source: Kantar Media
1 Figures include network advertisements, station promotions and PSAs. Local commercial time is excluded.

The top five brands ranked by total amount of Brand Appearance time were Chef Revival, Viking appliances, Bud Light beer, Yamaha music equipment and Ford.

About Kantar Media

Established in more than 50 countries, Kantar Media helps clients master the world’s multimedia momentum through analysis of print, radio, TV, internet, cinema, mobile, social media, and outdoor worldwide. Kantar Media offers a full range of media insights and audience measurement services through its global business sectors – Intelligence, Audiences, TGI and Custom. Kantar Media companies also include Compete, Cymfony and SRDS. Drawing upon the deepest expertise in the industry, Kantar Media tracks more than 3 million brands and delivers insight to more than 22,000 customers worldwide.

“The rally in ad spending that has emerged from last year’s collapse continued at a steady pace through the second quarter, even as softening economic data on retail sales, spending and employment began to raise concerns about the outlook for consumer activity,” said Jon Swallen, SVP Research at Kantar Media. “Early figures from the third quarter indicate the advertising expansion is still maintaining its momentum and that is an encouraging sign for the industry.”

Measured Ad Spending By Media

Television media led the first half rebound. Spot TV expenditures jumped 25.1 percent, fueled by robust demand from auto and retail marketers and a cyclical upturn in political advertising. Spanish Language TV spending rose 14.6 percent, with gains driven by the World Cup event in June. Cable TV (+ 8.8 percent) and Network TV (+7.2 percent) benefited from selling more ad time and increased spending across a broad range of retail and consumer package goods categories.

Free Standing Inserts (FSIs) posted the second largest growth rate among the major media sectors. Expenditures rose 7.6 percent as CPG marketers aggressively targeted value-conscious consumers with couponing programs.

Within the Radio sector, results were divergent. Spending in National Spot Radio increased 16.8 percent while Local Radio was up 4.2 percent as telecom and financial service marketers shifted budgets into these segments. Network Radio registered a small decline of -0.4 percent. All radio types saw growth rates ease slightly during the second quarter.

Consumer Magazine expenditures bottomed out in March and the ensuing rebound in page counts helped push half-year spending to a 1.5 percent increase. Sunday Magazines (+13.1 percent) continued to reap additional money from prescription drug makers and home improvement retailers.

National Newspaper spending jumped 7.1 percent, primarily from gains at the Wall Street Journal. However, Local Newspaper spending was down 4.6 percent compared to last year and has now suffered declines for 19 consecutive quarters.

Percent Change in Measured Ad Spending1

MEDIA SECTOR

Media Type
(Sectors and types listed in rank order of H1 spending)
Jan-June
2010 vs. 2009
TELEVISION MEDIA        10.0%
– Network TV         7.2%
– Cable TV2         8.8%
– Spot TV3         25.1%
– Spanish Language TV4         14.6%
– Syndication – National         -11.7%
MAGAZINE MEDIA5        1.6%
– Consumer Magazines         1.5%
– B-to-B Magazines         -4.2%
– Sunday Magazines         13.1%
– Local Magazines         -3.5%
– Spanish Language Magazines         4.8%
NEWSPAPER MEDIA6        -3.0%
– Local Newspapers         -4.6%
– National Newspapers         7.1%
– Spanish Language Newspapers         2.8%
INTERNET (display ads only)        5.3%
RADIO MEDIA        6.3%
– Local Radio7         4.2%
– National Spot Radio         16.8%
– Network Radio         -0.4%
OUTDOOR        2.8%
FSIs8        7.6%
TOTAL        5.7%
Source: Kantar Media

1. Figures are based on the Kantar Media Stradegy™ multimedia ad expenditure database across all measured media, including: Network TV (6 networks); Spot TV (125 DMAs); Cable TV (71 networks); Syndication TV; Hispanic Network TV (4 networks); Consumer Magazines (226 publications);,Sunday Magazines (7 publications); Local Magazines (27 publications); Hispanic Magazines (16 publications); Business-to-Business Magazines (313 publications); Local Newspapers (147 publications); National Newspapers (3 publications); Hispanic Newspapers (49 publications); Network Radio (5 networks); Spot Radio; Local Radio (32 markets); Internet; and Outdoor. Figures do not include public service announcement (PSA) data.

2. Cable TV figures do not include Hispanic cable networks.

3. Spot TV figures do not include Hispanic stations.

4. Spanish Language TV includes 4 Hispanic broadcast networks, 4 Hispanic cable network and 71 local Hispanic TV stations.

5. Magazine media includes Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) data and reflect print editions of publications.

6. Newspaper media figures reflect print editions of publications.

7. Local Radio includes expenditures for 32 markets in the U.S.

8. FSI data represents distribution costs only.

Measured Ad Spending by Advertiser

Expenditures for the ten largest advertisers increased 11.5 percent to $8.35 billion in the first six months of 2010. Among the Top 100 advertisers, a diversified group representing nearly one-half of the measured ad economy, spending was up 9.7 percent to $29.32 billion. The long-tail of small advertisers – defined as those outside the Top 1000 and a segment which accounts for more than one-fifth of all ad expenditures – lagged behind with just a 1.4 percent gain in their aggregate media investments. The skewed distribution illustrates the dependency of the current advertising recovery on large advertisers.

Procter & Gamble easily held onto its position as the largest advertiser and spent $1,501.2 million, a 31.1 percent increase versus a year ago. The company boosted marketing support for nearly all of its largest brands.

AT&T took the second spot in the rankings with expenditures rising 14.1 percent to $1,108.2 million. Much of the increase was due to a large TV ad buy in February’s Winter Olympics, while the second quarter was characterized by significant advertising reductions for core wireless products. Rival Verizon Communications slashed its half-year budgets by 12.3 percent, to $1,020.2 million.

The Top 10 included three auto manufacturers, the most from that sector in more than three years. General Motors had the largest growth rate as the company lifted spending 45.6 percent, to $1,043.0 million. Toyota Motor, seeking to rehabilitate its image after recalling millions of vehicles for safety hazards, raised its ad budgets by 23.3 percent, to $527.7 million. Ford Motor, which has recently been gaining market share, accelerated its expenditures by a comparatively modest 12.2 percent, to $524.1 million.

Top Ten Advertisers: January-June 20101

Rank          Company
Jan – Jun 2010
($Millions)

Jan – Jun 2009
($Millions)
% Change
1         Procter & Gamble Co         $1,501.2         $1,145.2         31.1%
2         AT&T Inc         $1,108.2         $970.8         14.1%
3         General Motors Corp         $1,043.0         $716.3         45.6%
4         Verizon Communications Inc         $1,020.2         $1,163.2         -12.3%
5         Johnson & Johnson         $708.9         $798.8         -11.2%
6         News Corp         $700.9         $662.5         5.8%
7         Pfizer Inc         $649.4         $558.5         16.3%
8         Time Warner Inc         $571.1         $579.7         -1.5%
9         Toyota Motor Corp         $527.7         $427.9         23.3%
10         Ford Motor Co         $524.1         $467.0         12.2%
TOTAL2        $8,354.6        $7,489.8        11.5%
Source: Kantar Media

1. Figures do not include FSI, House Ads or PSA activity.

2. The sum of the individual companies may differ from the Total shown due to rounding.

Measured Ad Spending by Category

Expenditures for the ten largest advertising categories rose 7.3 percent in the first six months of 2010 and totaled $36.04 billion.

Automotive was the premier category among the Top Ten on both dollar volume and growth rate as spending surged 23.4 percent to $6,062.7 million amidst an improved environment for vehicle sales. Within the category, manufacturers and dealers had comparable rates of increase.

Telecom was the second largest category with half-year expenditures up 2.8 percent to $4,383.6 million. However, spending rates fell during the second quarter as leading wireless and satellite TV marketers pulled back.

Financial Services advertising jumped 11.3 percent, to $3,818.0 million. Results were helped by vigorous competition among credit card issuers and a marketing revival for consumer loan products. These offset lingering sluggishness in the retail banking segment.

Packaged goods categories continued to see higher advertising support as marketers adapted their strategies to evolving changes in consumer shopping behavior. Expenditures for Food & Candy were up 9.5 percent to $3,299.4 million, and spending for Personal Care Products increased 11.8 percent to $2,962.3 million.

Top Ten Advertising Categories: January-June 20101

Rank          Category
Jan – Jun 2010
($Millions)

Jan – Jun 2009
($Millions)
% Change
1         Automotive         $6,062.7         $4,913.4         23.4%

(Manufacturers)
$3,907.4        $3,134.1        24.7%

(Dealers)
$2,155.3        $1,779.3        21.1%
2         Telecom         $4,383.6         $4,266.3         2.8%
3         Local Services         $3,926.2         $3,719.7         5.5%
4         Financial Services         $3,818.0         $3,430.4         11.3%
5         Miscellaneous Retail2         $3,385.2         $3,092.6         9.5%
6         Food & Candy         $3,299.4         $3,011.8         9.5%
7         Direct Response         $3,108.5         $3,245.6         -4.2%
8         Personal Care Pdts         $2,962.3         $2,650.6         11.8%
9         Restaurants         $2,889.6         $2,863.0         0.9%
10         Travel & Tourism         $2,201.0         $2,388.7         -7.9%
TOTAL3        $36,036.5        $33,582.3        7.3%
Source: Kantar Media

1. Figures do not include FSI or PSA activity.

2. Miscellaneous Retail does not include these retail segments: Department Stores, Home Furnishing/Building Supply Stores.

3. The sum of the individual categories may differ from the total due to rounding.

Branded Entertainment

Kantar Media continuously monitors Branded Entertainment within network prime time and late night programming. The tracking identifies Brand Appearances and measures their duration and attributes. Given the short length of many Brand Appearances, duration is a more relevant metric than a count of occurrences for quantifying and comparing the gross amount of brand activity that viewers are potentially exposed to in the program versus the commercial breaks.

In the second quarter of 2010, an average hour of monitored prime time network programming contained nine minutes, thirty one seconds (9:31) of in-show Brand Appearances and 14:19 of network commercial messages. The combined total of 23:50 of marketing content represents 40 percent of a prime-time hour.

Unscripted reality programming had an average of 16:39 per hour of Brand Appearances as compared to just 5:16 per hour for scripted programs such as sitcoms and dramas. Late night network talk shows had an average of 13:55 per hour. The combined load of Brand Appearances and network ad messages in these late night shows was 29:38 per hour, or 49 percent of total content time.

Brand Appearances vs. Advertising: Q2 2010
(minutes:seconds per hour)

Brand Appearances

Network Ad Messages1
TOTAL
PRIME TIME NETWORK         9:31         14:19         23:50
Unscripted Programs        16:39        14:47        31:26
Scripted Programs        5:16        14:03        19:19

LATE NITE NETWORK
(Kimmel, O’Brien, Letterman)
13:55         15:43         29:38
Source: Kantar Media

1 Figures include network advertisements, station promotions and PSAs. Local commercial time is excluded.

The top five brands ranked by total amount of Brand Appearance time were Coca-Cola, 24 Hour Fitness Center, Yamaha Music Equipment, Chef Revival, and Starter.

About Kantar Media

Established in more than 50 countries, Kantar Media helps clients master the world’s multimedia momentum through analysis of print, radio, TV, internet, cinema, mobile, social media, and outdoor worldwide. Kantar Media offers a full range of media insights and audience measurement services through its global business sectors – Intelligence, Audiences, TGI and Custom. Kantar Media companies also include Compete, Cymfony and SRDS. Drawing upon the deepest expertise in the industry, Kantar Media tracks more than 3 million brands and delivers insight to more than 22,000 customers worldwide.

“With the economy turning from recession towards growth, marketers appear to be more confident about a pickup in consumer activity and have increased ad budgets to support their brands,” said Jon Swallen, SVP Research at Kantar Media. “While the rising tide has thus far benefited some media sectors more than others, Q1 spending hikes were broadly distributed across advertisers and categories and that’s an encouraging signal for the market going forward.”

Measured Ad Spending By Media

Of the nineteen media types tracked by Kantar Media, thirteen experienced a spending increase in the first quarter. At the forefront, Spot TV surged 22.0 percent on a torrent of additional money from the automotive, retail, financial service and political categories. Despite this growth, current spending volume in Spot TV has only recovered to a level last seen in 1997.

Other television media types also performed strongly. Network TV expenditures received a boost from the Winter Olympics and finished the period up 11.6 percent. Cable TV (+8.2 percent) and Spanish Language TV (+7.2 percent) each benefitted from selling more ad time and strengthened demand among across a broad range of package goods and retail advertisers.

After a three year slump, radio ad expenditures finally had a turnaround. National Spot Radio advanced 19.0 percent and was paced by higher spending from the telecom, financial service and auto categories. Local Radio (+4.6 percent) and Network Radio (+3.0 percent) were also up.

Print media, on the whole, continued to lag the overall ad market. Consumer Magazine spending fell 3.9 percent from a year ago while Local Newspapers dropped 5.6 percent. There was improvement in some narrow segments as Sunday Magazine expenditures jumped 13.7 percent and National Newspapers increased 9.1 percent, primarily from gains at the Wall Street Journal.

Percent Change in Measured Ad Spending1

MEDIA SECTOR — Media Type
(Sectors and types listed in rank order of spending)
Jan – Mar 2010 vs. 2009
TELEVISION MEDIA          10.5%
– Network TV           11.6%
– Cable TV2           8.2%
– Spot TV3           22.0%
– Spanish Language TV4           7.2%
– Syndication – National           -13.2%
MAGAZINE MEDIA5          -3.2%
– Consumer Magazines           -3.9%
– B-to-B Magazines           -8.4%
– Sunday Magazines           13.7%
– Local Magazines           -7.1%
– Spanish Language Magazines           1.5%
NEWSPAPER MEDIA6          -3.7%
– Local Newspapers           -5.6%
– National Newspapers           9.1%
– Spanish Language Newspapers           4.5%
INTERNET (display ads only)          5.0%
RADIO MEDIA          7.4%
– Local Radio7           4.6%
– National Spot Radio           19.0%
– Network Radio           3.0%
OUTDOOR          -0.4%
FSIs8          12.8%
TOTAL          5.1%
Source: Kantar Media
1. Figures are based on the Kantar Media Stradegy™ multimedia ad expenditure database across all measured media, including: Network TV (6 networks); Spot TV (125 DMAs); Cable TV (71 networks); Syndication TV; Hispanic Network TV (4 networks); Consumer Magazines (225 publications);,Sunday Magazines (7 publications); Local Magazines (26 publications); Hispanic Magazines (17 publications); Business-to-Business Magazines (351 publications); Local Newspapers (147 publications); National Newspapers (3 publications); Hispanic Newspapers (49 publications); Network Radio (5 networks); Spot Radio; Local Radio (32 markets); Internet; and Outdoor. Figures do not include public service announcement (PSA) data.
2. Cable TV figures do not include Hispanic cable networks.
3. Spot TV figures do not include Hispanic stations.
4. Spanish Language TV includes 4 Hispanic broadcast networks, 4 Hispanic cable network and 71 local Hispanic TV stations.
5. Magazine media includes Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) data and reflect print editions of publications.
6. Newspaper media figures reflect print editions of publications.
7. Local Radio includes expenditures for 32 markets in the U.S.
8. FSI data represents distribution costs only.

Measured Ad Spending by Advertiser

Expenditures for the ten largest advertisers in the first quarter jumped 10.6 percent to $4.34 billion. Among the Top 100 advertisers, a diversified group representing nearly one-half of the measured ad economy, spending was up 11.0 percent to $14.89 billion. The long-tail of small advertisers – defined as those outside the Top 1000 – were far below these growth rates and posted a 1.1 percent decline in their aggregate media investments.

Procter & Gamble kept its position as the largest advertiser with $772.6 million in spending, an increase of 17.7 percent versus a year ago. The company continued to shift budgets towards magazines and away from television.

AT&T rose to the second spot with spending of $576.4 million, up 26.7 percent, behind a large television ad buy in the Winter Olympics. Rival Verizon Communications reduced its total expenditures by 9.1 percent, to $517.2 million. Both telecom companies continued to allocate more resources to promote their TV service products as they try to win subscribers from cable and satellite operators.

Pfizer posted the highest growth rate with expenditures up 46.2 percent to $396.4 million as the company maintained aggressive marketing support for Lipitor prior to the brand going off patent in 2011. With auto industry sales picking up, General Motors accelerated its spending by 28.5 percent to $533.7 million and accounted for more than one-fourth of all ad dollars spent by auto manufacturers.

News Corp (+7.8 percent, to 366.8 million) and Time Warner (+14.7 percent, to $304.3 million) also had notable increases. At both companies the results were primarily shaped by their movie studio divisions

Top Ten Advertisers Of Q1 20101

Rank          Company
Jan – Mar 2010 ($Millions)

Jan – Mar 2009 ($Millions)
% Change
1           Procter & Gamble Co           $772.6           $656.5           17.7%
2           AT&T Inc           $576.4           $455.0           26.7%
3           General Motors Corp           $533.7           $415.5           28.5%
4           Verizon Communications Inc           $517.2           $569.1           -9.1%
5           Pfizer Inc           $396.4           $271.1           46.2%
6           News Corp           $366.8           $340.4           7.8%
7           Johnson & Johnson           $344.1           $390.3           -11.8%
8           Time Warner Inc           $304.3           $265.3           14.7%
9           Walt Disney Co           $267.6           $303.6           -11.8%
10           General Electric Co           $264.6           $261.3           1.3%
TOTAL2          $4,343.9          $3,928.0          10.6%
Source: Kantar Media
1. Figures do not include FSI, House Ads or PSA activity.
2. The sum of the individual companies may differ from the Total shown due to rounding.

Measured Ad Spending by Category

Expenditures for the ten largest advertising categories rose 7.8 percent in the first quarter and totaled $17.95 billion. All but one of the Top Ten categories was up, indicating broad participation in the ad spending recovery.

Automotive was the leading category by dollar volume and also had the highest growth rate among the Top Ten as spending soared 18.6 percent to $3,016.8 million, ending a streak of 18 consecutive quarterly declines. Manufacturers and dealerships reacted quickly to an improving sales environment by ramping up marketing efforts with TV, magazines and radio being the main beneficiaries.

Telecom was the second largest category as expenditures reached $2,276.5 million, an increase of 10.6 percent. Financial Services also experienced a revival with outlays up 10.1 percent to $2,028.7 million. Sharply higher spending from marketers of credit cards and loan products offset continued weakness within the consumer banking segment.

Packaged goods categories, where advertisers took advantage of soft ad pricing in 2009 to bolster their media weight, were undaunted by rising ad prices in the first quarter of 2010. Spending from Food & Candy was up 7.3 percent to $1,600.0 million and expenditures for Personal Care Products increased by 5.5 percent to $1,311.5 million.

Restaurant category spending also turned around with modest growth of 3.1 percent, to $1.454.5 million. A major contributor to the gain was McDonald’s television sponsorship of the Winter Olympics.

Top Ten Advertising Categories Of Q1 20101

Rank          Category
Jan – Mar 2010 ($Millions)

Jan – Mar 2009
($Millions) % Change
1           Automotive           $3,016.8           $2,544.6           18.6%

– (Manufacturers)
$1,962.1          $1,634.6          20.0%

– (Dealers)
$1,054.7          $910.0          15.9%
2           Telecom           $2,276.5           $2,059.0           10.6%
3           Financial Services           $2,028.7           $1,841.9           10.1%
4           Local Services           $1,895.0           $1,819.5           4.1%
5           Miscellaneous Retail2           $1,668.4           $1,532.2           8.9%
6           Food & Candy           $1,600.0           $1,490.6           7.3%
7           Direct Response           $1,569.3           $1,621.5           -3.2%
8           Restaurants           $1,454.5           $1,411.0           3.1%
9           Personal Care Products           $1,311.5           $1,242.6           5.5%
10           Pharmaceuticals           $1,154.2           $1,113.7           3.6%
TOTAL3          $17,974.8          $16,676.7          7.8%
Source: Kantar Media
1. Figures do not include FSI or PSA activity.
2. Miscellaneous Retail does not include these retail segments: Department Stores, Home Furnishing/Building Supply Stores.
3. The sum of the individual categories may differ from the total due to rounding.

Branded Entertainment

Kantar Media continuously monitors Branded Entertainment within network prime time and late night programming. The tracking identifies Brand Appearances and measures their duration and attributes. Given the short length of many Brand Appearances, duration is a more relevant metric than a count of occurrences for quantifying and comparing the gross amount of brand activity that viewers are potentially exposed to in the program versus the commercial breaks.

In the first quarter of 2010, an average hour of monitored prime time network programming contained ten minutes, fifty five seconds (10:55) of in-show Brand Appearances and 14:20 of network commercial messages. The combined total of 25:15 of marketing content represents 42 percent of a prime-time hour.

Unscripted reality programming had an average of 19:42 per hour of Brand Appearances as compared to just 6:59 per hour for scripted programs such as sitcoms and dramas. Late night network talk shows had an average of 11:58 per hour. The combined load of Brand Appearances and network ad messages in these late night shows was 28:21 per hour, or 47 percent of total content time.

Brand Appearances vs. Advertising: Q4 2009
(minutes:seconds per hour)

Brand Appearances

Network Ad Messages1
TOTAL
PRIME TIME NETWORK           10:55           14:20           25:15
Unscripted Programs          19:42          14:26          34:08
Scripted Programs          6:59          14:16          21:15

LATE NITE NETWORK
(Kimmel, O’Brien, Letterman)
11:58           16:23           28:21
Source: Kantar Media
1 Figures include network advertisements, station promotions and PSAs. Local commercial time is excluded.

The top five brands ranked by total amount of Brand Appearance time were Coca-Cola, Asics, 24 Hour Fitness Center, Brita Water Purifiers and Yamaha Music Equipment.

About Kantar Media

Established in more than in 50 countries, Kantar Media enables exploration of multimedia momentum through analysis of print, radio, TV, internet, social media, and outdoors worldwide. Kantar Media offers a full range of media insights and audience measurement services through its global business sectors – Intelligence, Audiences and TGI & Custom. Combining the deepest expertise in the industry, Kantar Media tracks more than 3 million brands and delivers insights to more than 22,000 customers around the world. (www.KantarMediaNA.com).

Measured Ad Spending By Media

Internet display advertising expenditures increased 7.3 percent in 2009, aided by sharply higher spending from the telecom, factory auto and travel categories. The only other media type achieving full-year growth was Free Standing Inserts, up 3.0 percent as CPG marketers targeted value-conscious shoppers with couponing programs.

National TV media continued to outperform the overall ad market. Cable TV expenditures dropped just 1.4 percent, helped by an expanding amount of commercial time. Network TV (-7.6 percent) and Spanish Language TV (-8.9 percent) each saw year-end improvement in key categories that lifted their results. By contrast, Spot TV lagged far behind with a 23.7 percent spending drop versus a 2008 period that was bolstered by record amounts of political advertising.

Print media were hit by large reductions across a broad range of advertisers. Measured ad spending in the Newspaper sector plunged by 19.7 percent in 2009. Sunday Magazine expenditures declined 11.0 percent and Consumer Magazines were down 16.6 percent.

Percent Change in Measured Ad Spending1

MEDIA SECTOR
– Media Type
(Sectors and types listed in rank order of spending)

Full Year
2009 vs 2008

4th Quarter
2009 vs 2008

TELEVISION MEDIA          -9.5%          -2.4%
– Network TV           -7.6%           4.1%
– Cable TV2           -1.4%           2.7%
– Spot TV3           -23.7%           -13.9%
– Spanish Language TV4           -8.9%           -4.7%
– Syndication – National           -4.9%           -10.7%
MAGAZINE MEDIA5          -17.4%          -11.5%
– Consumer Magazines           -16.6%           -11.1%
– B-to-B Magazines           -26.2%           -22.7%
– Sunday Magazines           -11.0%           3.6%
– Local Magazines           -27.7%           -18.2%
– Spanish Language Magazines           -21.6%           -12.8%
NEWSPAPER MEDIA6          -19.7%          -8.9%
– Newspapers (Local)           -20.0%           -10.3%
– National Newspapers           -17.8%           0.4%
– Spanish Language Newspapers           -16.4%           -10.7%
INTERNET (display ads only)          7.3%          -2.1%
RADIO MEDIA          -20.3%          -12.5%
– Local Radio7           -20.6%           -11.7%
– National Spot Radio           -24.6%           -16.9%
– Network Radio           -8.7%           -7.9%
OUTDOOR          -13.2%          -5.4%
FSIs8          3.0%          0.0%
TOTAL9          -12.3%          -6.0%
Source: Kantar Media

1. Figures are based on the Kantar Media Stradegy™ multimedia ad expenditure database across all measured media, including: Network TV (6 networks); Spot TV (123 DMAs); Cable TV (71 networks); Syndication TV; Hispanic Network TV (4 networks); Consumer Magazines (231 publications);,Sunday Magazines (7 publications); Local Magazines (19 publications); Hispanic Magazines (14 publications); Business-to-Business Magazines (260 publications); Local Newspapers (147 publications); National Newspapers (3 publications); Hispanic Newspapers (47 publications); Network Radio (5 networks); Spot Radio; Local Radio (32 markets); Internet; and Outdoor. Figures do not include public service announcement (PSA) data.

2. Cable TV figures do not include Hispanic cable networks.

3. Spot TV figures do not include Hispanic stations.

4. Spanish Language TV includes 4 Hispanic broadcast networks, 4 Hispanic cable network and 70 local Hispanic TV stations.

5. Magazine media includes Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) data and reflect print editions of publications.

6. Newspaper media figures reflect print editions of publications.

7. Local Radio includes expenditures for 32 markets in the U.S.

8. FSI data represents distribution costs only.

Measured Ad Spending by Advertiser

The top 10 advertisers of 2009 spent a combined total of $16,556.1 million in measured media which was just 0.9 percent lower compared to their 2008 outlays. Among the top 50 marketers, a diversified group representing one-third of the measured ad economy, 2009 spending fell 5.1 percent, to $42,401.3 million. At the other end of the spectrum, small advertisers – defined as those ranked outside the Top 1,000 – trimmed their collective budgets by 20.3 percent.

Procter & Gamble was again the largest advertiser with $2,714.3 million in spending, down 15.6 percent versus a year ago. Verizon Communications held onto the second position with expenditures of $2,238.2 million, a drop of 6.9 percent.

Three of the top advertisers posted healthy double-digit gains. Wal-Mart upped its budgets by 35.4 percent behind the launch of its “Save Money, Live Better” campaign. Pfizer spending rose 32.7 percent as the company boosted marketing support for Lipitor ahead of the brand’s 2011 patent expiration. Sprint Nextel, battling for market share against its larger wireless rivals, hiked expenditures by 29.9 percent.

General Motors, despite a 30 percent drop in vehicles sold, spent 1.3 percent more on media advertising and was the only auto company in the Top Ten rankings.

Top Ten Advertisers:
Jan-Dec 2009 vs. Jan-Dec 20081

Company
Jan – Dec 2009
($Millions)

Jan – Dec 2008
($Millions)
% Change
Procter & Gamble Co     $2,714.3           $3,217.1           -15.6%
Verizon Communications Inc     $2,238.2           $2,403.4           -6.9%
General Motors Corp     $2,197.5           $2,168.3           1.3%
AT&T Inc     $1,904.4           $1,986.0           -4.1%
Pfizer Inc     $1,397.4           $1,052.8           32.7%
News Corp     $1,252.2           $1,401.3           -10.6%
Johnson & Johnson     $1,250.4           $1,368.6           -8.6%
Sprint Nextel Corp     $1,227.1           $944.8           29.9%
Time Warner Inc     $1,204.8           $1,292.9           -6.8%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc     $1,169.6           $864.1           35.4%
TOTAL2    $16,556.1          $16,699.2          -0.9%
Source: Kantar Media

1. Figures do not include FSI, House Ads or PSA activity.

2. The sum of the individual companies may differ from the Total shown due to rounding.

Measured Ad Spending by Category

Expenditures for the 10 largest advertising categories fell 10.7 percent in 2009 and totaled $70,739.4 million.

Automotive was the top category with total spending of $10,977.6 million, down 23.4 percent from the prior year. Fourth quarter figures were markedly brighter, a decline of just 0.9 percent. Dealers continued to cut budgets more severely than manufacturers in the face of withering sales. Auto category spending has now declined for 18 consecutive quarters.

Telecom was the second largest category with $8,606.8 million of measured expenditures, a gain of 1.6 percent. Results were driven by the fierce competition among wireless carriers and TV service providers.

Two other categories also finished the year with higher spending. Food & Candy was up 3.5 percent to $6,261.0 million as many leading marketers took advantage of lower ad prices and strategically increased support for key brands. Pharmaceutical expenditures rose 3.9 percent to $4,751.8 million on the strength of well-funded marketing launches for several newly approved prescription drugs.

Top Ten Advertising Categories:
Jan-Dec 2009 vs. Jan-Dec 20081

Rank          Category
Jan-Dec 2009
(Millions)

Jan-Dec 2008
(Millions)
% Change
1           Automotive           $10,977.6           $14,338.9           -23.4%

– (Manufacturers)
($7,175.5)          ($8,400.9)          (-14.6%)

– (Dealers)
($3,802.1)          ($5,938.0)          (-36.0%)
2           Telecom           $8,606.8           $8,470.1           1.6%
3           Financial Services           $7,820.1           $9,572.1           -18.3%
4           Local Services           $7,490.9           $8,628.0           -13.2%
5

Miscellaneous Retail2
$7,124.7           $8,361.7           -14.8%
6           Direct Response           $6,626.5           $7,489.9           -11.5%
7           Food & Candy           $6,261.0           $6,046.8           3.5%
8           Restaurants           $5,541.2           $5,718.7           -3.1%
9           Personal Care Products           $5,538.9           $6,026.6           -8.1%
10           Pharmaceuticals           $4,751.8           $4,575.0           3.9%
TOTAL3          $70,739.4          $79,228.0          -10.7%
Source: Kantar Media

1. Figures do not include FSI or PSA activity.

2. Miscellaneous Retail does not include these retail segments: Department Stores, Home Furnishing/Building Supply Stores.

3. The sum of the individual categories may differ from the total due to rounding.

Branded Entertainment

Kantar Media continuously monitors Branded Entertainment within network prime time and late night programming. The tracking identifies Brand Appearances and measures their duration and attributes. Given the short length of many Brand Appearances, duration is a more relevant metric than a count of occurrences for quantifying and comparing the gross amount of brand activity that viewers are potentially exposed to in the program versus the commercial breaks.

In the fourth quarter of 2009, an average hour of monitored prime time network programming contained eight minutes, thirty six seconds (8:36) of in-show Brand Appearances and 14:05 of network commercial messages. The combined total of 22:41 of marketing content represents 38 percent of a prime-time hour.

Unscripted reality programming had an average of 15:15 per hour of Brand Appearances as compared to just 5:26 per hour for scripted programs such as sitcoms and dramas. Late night network talk shows had an average of 12:10 per hour. The combined load of Brand Appearances and network ad messages in these late night shows was 28:01 per hour, or 47 percent of total content time.

Brand Appearances vs. Advertising: Q4 2009
(minutes:seconds per hour)

Brand
Appearances

Network Ad
Messages1
TOTAL
PRIME TIME NETWORK           8:36           14:05           22:41
Unscripted Programs          15:15          14:06          29:21
Scripted Programs          5:26          14:05          19:31

LATE NITE NETWORK
(Kimmel, O’Brien, Letterman)
12:10           15:51           28:01
Source: Kantar Media

1 Figures include network advertisements, station promotions and PSAs. Local commercial time is excluded.

The top five brands ranked by number of Brand Appearances were Yamaha Music Equipment, 24 Hour Fitness Center, Dell, Ford, and Bud Light.

About Kantar Media

Established in more than in 50 countries, Kantar Media enables exploration of multimedia momentum through analysis of print, radio, TV, internet, social media, and outdoors worldwide. Kantar Media offers a full range of media insights and audience measurement services through its global business sectors – Intelligence, Audiences and TGI & Custom. Combining the deepest expertise in the industry, Kantar Media tracks more than 3 million brands and delivers insights to more than 22,000 customers around the world. (www.KantarMediaNA.com).

About Kantar

Kantar is one of the world’s largest insight, information and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of its 13 specialist companies, the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and inspirational insights for the global business community. Its 26,500 employees work across 95 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group’s services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies.

For further information, please visit us at www.Kantar.com

NEW YORK – The escalating chatter surrounding Super Bowl XLIV is not just about the teams competing for the 2010 championship. The TV commercials that will appear during the game are also the subject of discussion and speculation. And participating advertisers will once again be confronted with the difficult question of whether the Super Bowl is a smart marketing investment or a wasted use of the budget.

TNS Media Intelligence has again combed through its extensive database to report on the past 20 years of Super Bowl advertising. From 1990 thru 2009, the Super Bowl game has generated $2.17 billion of network sales from a total of 210 different advertisers and more than 1,400 commercial messages.

“The Super Bowl remains a singular event for engaging the broadest number of consumers at one time,” said Mark Nesbitt, President, TNS Media Intelligence. “Because it is viewed live and experienced by a majority of the country at the same time, a commercial presence on the broadcast has great significance and impact for a brand, making each not so much a brand message as a brand event. It is why a presence on the broadcast lends itself so effectively to an integrated marketing effort.”

“As an advertising event, the Super Bowl has evolved beyond a vehicle for presenting expensive, stand-alone commercial spots that seek to entertain viewers and generate awareness,” said Jon Swallen, SVP Research for TNS Media Intelligence. “Increasingly, in-game spots are being supplemented by elaborate integrated communications programs that attempt to drive traffic online or in-store, generate positive social media discussion, incorporate public relations effort and ultimately achieve a strong ROI.”

Top Five Super Bowl Advertisers

The top five Super Bowl advertisers of the past 20 years have spent $783 million on advertising during the game, accounting for 36 percent of total advertising revenue. Anheuser-Busch and PepsiCo, which have appeared in every game during this period, lead the pack, followed by General Motors, Walt Disney and Time Warner.

TOP 5 SUPER BOWL ADVERTISERS
1990-2009

Although Pepsi soft drinks will not be advertised in this year’s game, ending a 23-year streak, the PepsiCo parent company will still be represented by its Frito-Lay snack food division. General Motors will be absent from the game for the second year in a row. Prior to dropping out in 2009, GM had advertised in 11 of the previous 12 Super Bowls.

The Price of Advertising

The cost of a 30-second advertisement in the Super Bowl has more than quadrupled in the past 20 years and reached $3 million in 2009. The recessionary environment is expected to yield lower pricing for the 2010 game, with CBS reportedly selling 30-second units for between $2.5 and $2.8 million.

The amount paid by individual marketers will vary depending on where the ad runs in the game, how much commercial time is purchased and whether the advertiser opts for a larger package that includes spots in the pre-game and/or post-game coverage.

SUPER BOWL ADVERTISING:
RATES AND REVENUE 1990-2009

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

First Time Advertisers

Since 2005, the annual Super Bowl ad lineup has had between 30 and 35 different companies. First-time advertisers are accounting for 20-25 percent of the ad roster. The ad time vacated by such long-time sponsors as FedEx, General Motors and Pepsi is being taken over by other companies eager for the recognition and brand-building opportunity of the Super Bowl stage.

The first-time advertisers in the 2009 game were Cash4Gold.com, Castrol, Denny’s, Teleflora and Vizio. For the 2010 contest, the rookie lineup is expected to include Electronic Arts and HomeAway, among others.

NUMBER OF SUPER BOWL ADVERTISERS BY YEAR

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

More Advertising, More Clutter

Over the past ten years, the volume of commercial time in the game has been edging upwards even as the price of advertising has become more expensive. The NBC telecast of the 2009 Super Bowl contained a record 45 minutes, 5 seconds of network ads. This included paying sponsors, commercial messages from the NFL, plus “house ads” aired by CBS to promote its own shows.

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

Top Super Bowl Advertising Categories

What kinds of products are most frequently advertised on the Super Bowl? The popular perception is that beer, soft drinks and autos are the prime ad categories, given their annual presence in the game.

Actually, the leader by dollar value is promotional advertising from the network itself. In a typical Super Bowl, 15-20 percent of all commercial time is a plug by the network for its own programming. In 2009, the value of this air time exceeded $42 million.

Network Promotions In The Super Bowl

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

“The Super Bowl offers the host network an attractive platform to promote its upcoming programming and try to build an audience,” added Swallen. “In deciding how much ad time to keep for itself, the network has to assess the trade-off between giving up current revenue in the game versus building future revenue from its other programming.”

Over the past decade, the Super Bowl has attracted a bevy of different movie studio, automotive and dot-com companies, making them the most populous and competitive ad categories.

Number of Super Bowl Advertisers By Category

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

How Big is the Super Bowl Versus Other Sport Franchises?

The Major League Baseball’s World Series and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship are two other high profile sporting events that attract significant interest from TV advertisers. But how do these compare to the Super Bowl in terms of ad spend?

The World Series is four to seven games. March Madness peaks with the semi-finals and championship on its final weekend, a total of three games. The Super Bowl, of course, is a single telecast. In recent years, the Super Bowl and World Series have been running neck and neck in total ad spending. In 2009, baseball pulled slightly ahead as the Fall Classic went to a sixth game for the first time since 2003.

MAJOR SPORTING CHAMPIONSHIPS
NETWORK TV AD REVENUE ($ MILLIONS)

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

About TNS Media

Established in more than 30 countries, TNS Media explores all media – print, radio, TV, Internet, social media, cinema and outdoor worldwide, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and offers a full range of insights, analyses and audience measurement services.

TNS Media combines the deepest expertise in the industry to provide media and marketing intelligence including advertising expenditure monitoring, advertising creation monitoring, audience measurement, market influence analytics, online consumer behavior tracking, news monitoring, sports sponsorship evaluation and more. The TNS Media companies track more than 3 million brands and provide vital market intelligence to 16,000 customers around the world. For further information, please visit www.tnsmediagroup.com.

About Kantar

Kantar is one of the world’s largest insight, information and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of its 13 specialist companies, the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and inspirational insights for the global business community. Its 26,500 employees work across 95 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group’s services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies.

For further information, please visit us at www.kantar.com.

Ad Spending by Media

Internet display (+7.0 percent) and FSIs (+3.9 percent) were the only media types with spending increases for the nine month period. Online growth was propelled by telecom, travel and auto advertisers. FSIs benefitted from CPG companies expanding their couponing efforts as consumers became more value-conscious.

Among Television media, Cable TV networks continued to translate audience gains into a larger share of ad revenue. Year-to-date Cable TV expenditures slipped by just 2.9 percent, a much stronger performance than the TV sector as a whole. Network TV, now faced with comparisons against the 2008 Summer Olympics bonanza, saw year-to-date spending fall 11.5 percent and Q3 spending tumble 25.1 percent. Spot TV expenditures (-27.5 percent) remained depressed due to persistent weakness in auto and retail activity as well as cyclical reductions in political advertising.

Magazines (-19.7 percent), Newspapers (-22.8 percent) and Radio (-22.8 percent) severely lagged the overall ad market during the January-September period. Third quarter losses for each of these broad media groupings were less severe compared to the first half of the year and this could be construed as a positive indicator. However, these media are also into their second year of steep declines so Q3 comparisons are against the relatively low levels of year-ago spending.

Overall, local media ad spending was down 23.7 percent through September while national media dropped 10.1 percent.

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

1. Figures are based on the TNS Media Intelligence Stradegy™ multimedia ad expenditure database across all TNS MI measured media, including: Network TV; Spot TV (122 DMAs); Cable TV (71 networks); Syndication TV; Hispanic Network TV (4 networks); Consumer Magazines (231 publications); Sunday Magazines (7 publications); Local Magazines (22 publications); Hispanic Magazines (14 publications); Business-to-Business Magazines (278 publications); Local Newspapers (143 publications); National Newspapers (3 publications); Hispanic Newspapers (47 publications); Network Radio (5 networks); National Spot Radio; Local Radio (32 markets); Internet; and Outdoor. Figures do not include public service announcement (PSA) data.
2. Cable TV figures do not include Hispanic cable networks
3. Spot TV figures do not include Hispanic stations
4. Spanish Language TV includes 4 Hispanic broadcast networks, 4 Hispanic cable networks and 71 local Hispanic TV stations.
5. Magazine media includes Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) data and reflect print editions of publications.
6. Newspaper media figures reflect print editions of publications.
7. Local Radio includes expenditures for 32 markets in the U.S.
8. FSI data represents distribution costs only.

Ad Spending by Advertiser

The top 10 advertisers in the first nine months of 2009 spent a combined total of $11,757.6 million, a 5.9 percent decrease from last year. Across the top 100 companies, a more diversified group of marketers representing almost one-half of total ad expenditures, spending fell by 7.9 percent. Among the top 100 companies, 67 reduced their ad budgets and only 33 increased spending.

Procter & Gamble was the largest advertiser with $1,941.1 million in expenditures for the January-September period, a 15.9 percent decline versus a year ago.

Wireless telecom providers occupied three of the top ten positions and took different paths to arrive there. Verizon Communications spent $1,692.1 million, down 5.8 percent from last year. AT&T spent $1,339.4 million, 6.1 percent less than a year ago. Both advertisers cut Q3 ad expenditures by over 20 percent and this erased their spending increases from the first half of the year. Sprint Nextel, after slashing ad budgets in 2008, continued its aggressive marketing efforts and spent $912.8 million, a gain of 51.1 percent and the largest rate of increase among the top ten companies.

Pfizer was the only other top advertiser to raise its spending, finishing the period at $896.6 million, up 11.9 percent. While the acquisition of Wyeth helped pushed Pfizer into the top tier, the spending gains were primarily attributable to its own portfolio of prescription drugs, particularly Lipitor and Caduet.

General Motors was the lone automotive advertiser to make the top ten list, even as it reduced media budgets by 15.5 percent during the first nine months, to $1,352.6 million. Emerging from bankruptcy in July, GM quickly ramped up marketing activities and hiked its Q3 expenditures by 4.2 percent.

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

1. Figures do not include FSI, House Ads or PSA activity
2. The sum of the individual companies may differ from the Total shown due to rounding

Ad Spending by Category

The top ten advertising categories in January-September 2009 spent a total of $50,952.3 million, down 14.1 percent from a year ago. Automotive was the leading category at $7,491.9 million, a drop of 30.8 percent and proportionately in line with the decline in new vehicle sales. Dealer spending fell more severely than manufacturers. Automotive expenditures have now declined for seventeen consecutive quarters.

Ongoing competition among wireless phone companies and TV service providers propped up Telecom spending, which finished the period at $6,190.3 million, a gain of 0.4 percent. The only other leading category with an increase was Pharmaceuticals, up 0.6 percent to $3,483.6 million.

Financial services advertising plunged 23.7 percent to $5,673.1 million, the largest rate of decline among the top ten. Online stock brokerages and investment advisors, chasing a rising stock market, showed some tentative signs of an advertising revival in the third quarter. However, retail banks and credit card companies continued to be extremely cautious with their marketing budgets.

Local advertising categories continued to sputter as seen in the results for Local Services and Amusements (down 15.0 percent, to $5,609.9 million) and Miscellaneous Retail (off 17.4 percent, to $4,751.0 million). The latter includes all retail segments except department stores (where spending fell just 5.1 percent) and home furnishing/building supply stores (down 20.4 percent).

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

1. Figures do not include FSI or PSA activity.
2. Miscellaneous Retail does not include these retail segments: Department Stores, Home Furnishing/Building Supply Stores
3. The sum of the individual categories may differ from the total due to rounding.

Branded Entertainment

TNS Media Intelligence continuously monitors Branded Entertainment within network prime time and late night programming. The tracking identifies Brand Appearances and measures their duration and attributes. Given the short length of many Brand Appearances, duration is a more relevant metric than a count of occurrences for quantifying and comparing the gross amount of brand activity that viewers are potentially exposed to in the program versus in the commercial breaks.

In the third quarter of 2009, an average hour of monitored prime time network programming contained 11 minutes, 46 seconds (11:46) of in-show Brand Appearances, a 31 percent increase from a year ago. In addition, there was 14:07 per hour of network commercial messages. The combined total of 25:53 of marketing content represents 43 percent of a prime-time hour.

Unscripted reality programming had an average of 15:04 per hour of Brand Appearances as compared to just 5:33 per hour for scripted programs such as sitcoms and dramas. Late night network talk shows averaged 11:18 per hour. The combined load of Brand Appearances and network ad messages in these programs reached 26:23 per hour, or 44 percent of total programming time.

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

1 Figures include network advertisements, station promotions and PSAs. Local commercial time is excluded.

About TNS Media

Established in more than 30 countries, TNS Media explores all media – print, radio, TV, Internet, social media, cinema and outdoor worldwide, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and offers a full range of insights, analyses and audience measurement services.

TNS Media combines the deepest expertise in the industry to provide media and marketing intelligence including advertising expenditure monitoring, advertising creation monitoring, audience measurement, market influence analytics, online consumer behavior tracking, news monitoring, sports sponsorship evaluation and more. The TNS Media companies track more than 3 million brands and provide vital market intelligence to 16,000 customers around the world. For further information, please visit www.tnsmediagroup.com

About Kantar

Kantar is one of the world’s largest insight, information and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of its 13 specialist companies, the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and inspirational insights for the global business community. Its 26,500 employees work across 95 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group’s services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies.

For further information, please visit us at www.kantar.com

“The ad market declined significantly in the first quarter, overtaken by a collapsing economy which prompted consumers and marketers alike to shut their wallets and conserve,” said Jon Swallen, SVP Research at TNS Media Intelligence. “While there are hopeful signs of general economic indicators bottoming out, the advertising sector still appears to be lagging behind. Available data from second quarter shows ad expenditures tracking on a comparable plane to recent months.”

“Given the struggling economy and the historic challenges being faced by key industry sectors such as automotive and financial services, and certain media categories, a decline in Q1 ad expenditures, while significant, is not wholly unexpected,” said Dean DeBiase, CEO, TNS Media. “But as has traditionally been seen in recessionary periods, some sectors and brands are approaching a depressed marketplace as an opportunity to gain share and are increasing spending accordingly. The advertising industry, too, while struggling, is understanding this is a period for innovation and we are seeing efforts to reboot their approach through the advent of new technologies and tools such as addressable advertising, and the first steps to integrating ad measurement in a synergistic manner across all media platforms.”

Ad Spending By Media

Local media suffered most with aggregate expenditures sinking 25.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009. The rate of decline was similar across Spot TV (-27.5 percent), Local Newspapers (-25.1 percent) and Local Radio (-26.8 percent). Each of these segments was ravaged by deep spending cutbacks in core categories such as automotive, retail and local services.

For national media, combined ad spending fell 8.5 percent versus a year ago. Within this segment, performance was sharply defined along the lines of print versus television versus online.

National Newspapers (-28.5 percent), B-to-B Magazines (-25.5 percent), Consumer Magazines (-19.2 percent) and other print media were clustered on one track and their revenue declines were driven by fewer ad pages.

Network TV (-4.2 percent), Cable TV (-2.7 percent) and Syndication (+0.2 percent) occupied a middle tier and each of these saw business improve slightly at the end of the quarter, paced by Motion Picture and Restaurant category spending. At an exclusive upper level, Internet display expenditures grew 8.2 percent as telecom, travel and local retail advertisers expanded their online marketing programs.

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

1. Figures are based on the TNS Media Intelligence Stradegy™ multimedia ad expenditure database across all TNS MI measured media, including: Network TV; Spot TV (135 DMAs); Cable TV (67networks); Syndication TV; Hispanic Network TV (4 networks); Consumer Magazines (226 publications); Sunday Magazines (7 publications); Local Magazines (24 publications); Hispanic Magazines (19 publications); Business-to-Business Magazines (362 publications); Local Newspapers (148 publications); National Newspapers (3 publications); Hispanic Newspapers (48 publications); Network Radio (5 networks); Spot Radio; Local Radio (32 markets); Internet; and Outdoor. Figures do not include public service announcement (PSA) data.

2. Spot TV figures do not include Hispanic Spot TV data.

3. Magazine media includes Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) data and reflect print editions of publications.

4. Newspaper media figures reflect print editions of the publications.

5. Local Radio includes expenditures for 32 markets in the U.S.

6. FSI data represents distribution costs only.

Ad Spending by Advertiser

The top 10 advertisers in the first quarter of 2009 spent a combined total of $4,019.5 million, a 5.7 percent decline from last year. Across the top 100 companies, a more diversified group of marketers representing nearly one-half of total ad expenditures, spending fell by 8.1 percent. The sharpest reductions occurred further down the rankings among the long tail of small advertisers who collectively account for the last one-fifth of total industry spending. Media outlays among this fragmented group tumbled 22.3 percent, a reflection of their sensitivity to economic and business conditions.

Procter & Gamble, despite slashing expenditures 17.8 percent, remained the country’s largest advertiser with $674.1 million in spending. The company pared TV allocations by nearly 30 percent across its broad portfolio of brands while leaving magazine budgets untouched.

Johnson & Johnson was the only other packaged goods marketer in the top 10 and it quietly increased total ad expenditures by 28.9 percent, to $397.2 million, its highest level of quarterly spend in two years.

Among the wireless telecommunication providers, Sprint Nextel aggressively hiked its spending by 30.3 percent, to $317.7 million, primarily to promote a new bundled value plan. Verizon Communications raised expenditures by 3.1 percent to $577.1 million while rival AT&T registered a small decline of 1.2 percent, to $459.4 million.

General Motors burned through $424.2 million of ad expenditures in the quarter, a 19.1 percent drop from a year ago but a smaller rate of decrease than most of its competitors.

1 Figures do not include FSI, House Ads or PSA activity.

Ad Spending by Category

The Top 10 advertising categories in the first quarter of 2009 spent a combined $16,735.6 million, down 13.6 percent from a year ago. The aggregate drop was skewed by the reduction in auto category expenditures, which nose-dived 28.4 percent to $2,309.0 million. Auto manufacturer spending was off 15.2 percent and dealer advertising was down a stunning 48.9 percent, paralleling a 38 percent decline in new vehicle sales during the period.

Only two top categories registered spending increases. Telecom expenditures rose 3.0 percent and reached $2,078.1 million with gains occurring across major wireless, cable and satellite TV providers. Restaurant ad budgets were up 2.5 percent to $1,415.5 million, paced by quick service establishments.

On the down side, Financial Services shed more than $400 million of spending and finished the quarter at $1,968.4 million, down 18.1 percent. Reductions were most prominent among loan products (-67.9 percent), credit cards (-41.0 percent) and retail banking (-20.7 percent). Other notable double-digit declines occurred among Local Services (-14.7 percent, to $1867.0 million), Direct Response (-17.4 percent to $1,635.8 million) and Travel & Tourism (-14.3 percent, to $1,140.4 million).

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

Note: Figures do not include FSI or PSA activity. The sum of the individual categories may differ from the total due to rounding.

1 Miscellaneous Retail does not include these retail segments: Department Stores, Home Furnishing & Appliance Stores

Branded Entertainment

TNS Media Intelligence continuously monitors Branded Entertainment within network prime time and late night programming. The tracking identifies Brand Appearances and measures their duration and attributes. Given the short length of many Brand Appearances, duration is a more relevant metric than a count of occurrences for quantifying and comparing the gross amount of brand activity that viewers are potentially exposed to in the program versus in the commercial breaks.

In the first quarter of 2009, an average hour of monitored prime time network programming contained 10 minutes, 35 seconds (10:35) of in-show Brand Appearances and 13:54 of network commercial messages. The combined total of 24:29 of marketing content represents 41 percent of a prime-time hour.

Unscripted reality programming had an average of 19:16 per hour of Brand Appearances as compared to just 5:31 per hour for scripted programs such as sitcoms and dramas. Late night network talk shows averaged 11:30 per hour. The combined load of Brand Appearances and network ad messages in these shows reached 29:40 per hour, or 49 percent of total programming time.

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

1 Figures include network advertisements, station promotions and PSAs. Local commercial time is excluded.

Among all monitored network programming during the period, The Biggest Loser: Couples had the highest average volume of Brand Appearance time at 48 minutes, 5 seconds (48:05) per hour. Rounding out the top five were Hell’s Kitchen (43:00); American Idol (40:49); Chopping Block (38:54); and Knight Rider (32:10).

About TNS Media

Established in more than 30 countries, TNS Media explores all media – print, radio, TV, Internet, social media, cinema and outdoor worldwide, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and offers a full range of insights, analyses and audience measurement services.

TNS Media combines the deepest expertise in the industry to provide media and marketing intelligence including advertising expenditure monitoring, advertising creation monitoring, audience measurement, market influence analytics, online consumer behavior tracking, news monitoring, sports sponsorship evaluation and more. The TNS Media companies track more than 3 million brands and provide vital market intelligence to 16,000 customers around the world. For further information, please visit www.tnsmediagroup.com

About Kantar Group and TNS

The Kantar Group is one of the world’s largest research, insight and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of more than 20 specialist companies – including the recently-acquired TNS – the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and actionable insights for the global business community. Its 26,500 employees work across 80 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group’s services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies. For further information, please visit www.kantargrouptns.com