• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 26, 2003

B-To-B Ad Spending Up 2.4%. Automotive Best; Horticulture Worst

According to February figures released recently by American Business Media, business-to-business print advertising spending is up for the fourth straight month. Ad dollars were up 2.4% compared to February 2002, while pages were down 5.6%. Year-to-date, spending is up 2.8% and pages are down 5.6%.

Gordon Hughes, President & CEO of American Business Media, said "We've been predicting 3% growth in ad revenues in the first quarter, and so far we're on target. (Though the) war in Iraq may delay growth until the second half of 2003, we are still comfortable with our projection of 3% growth for 2003."

Eight of the 12 categories showed improvement in ad spending in February compared to the same period the year before.

The Automotive sector posted by far the biggest gain, climbing 66.8% in ad dollars.

Retail rose 17.7%; Drugs & Toiletries were up 16.8%

Travel was up 9.2%

Services, Direct Response & Classified up 7.3%

Software up 3.2%

Finance, Business & Advertising up 3.1%

Home & Building up 2.0%

Categories down were:

Horticulture & Farming by 51.6%

Telecommunications by 50.2%

Computers by 26.0%

Manufacturing & Electrical Equipment, Materials & Components by 10.5%

Ad Pages Leading the field in ad pages in February was:

Drugs & Toiletries category, up 8.0%

Retail was up 2.6%

Automotive was up 1.0%

Ad pages down were:

Horticulture & Farming with a 45.2% decline

Telecommunications fell by 43.4%

Computers by 22.1%

Manufacturing by 14.9%

Software by 7.2%

Finance, Business & Advertising by 5.5%

Home & Building down 5.1%

Travel by 3.8%

Services, Direct Response & Classified by 3.1%

Find out more here.