However, Carlos Santiago, president of Santiago Solutions, noted that the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) has yet to report on 2004, but last year it said the government spent $44.5 million from Jan.-Dec. 2003 for both TV and print combined. He suggested that, though both reports use data from rate cards provided by the networks, they do not take into consideration any discounts, which in some cases rack up to 50 percent.
Santiago theorized that the recent elections could have boosted the government's standing in the Nielsen rankings this year, and noted that researchers have an ongoing problem in dealing with networks that inflate their numbers, but "Everybody has done it at some point. Now, to what level? That's debatable."
Nielsen Monitor Plus Ad Spending on Spanish-Speaking TV
Rank | Company | 1/2004 - 9/2004 | 1/2003 -9/2003 |
1 | Us Government | $91,374,950 | $67,764,232 |
2 | Procter & Gamble Co | $79,136,377 | $114,997,599 |
3 | Univision Comm. Inc. | $60,968,192 | $54,391,350 |
4 | Lexicon Marketing Corp | $55,171,173 | $83,743,377 |
5 | Sears Roebuck & Co | $53,160,997 | $88,626,815 |
6 | Pepsico Inc | $52,678,608 | $56,880,216 |
7 | Johnson & Johnson | $48,293,922 | $30,241,242 |
8 | General Motors Corp | $44,849,219 | $46,836,388 |
9 | Mcdonalds Corp | $35,568,246 | $43,221,793 |
10 | Wal-Mart Stores Inc | $33,311,293 | $20,760,589 |