• by John Gaffney , August 9, 2002

Go figure. It was supposed to be the year of the Internet rebound. That’s not happening so far, according to Nielsen’s new Monitor-Plus report released this morning.

The report shows an 8% drop so far this year for Internet advertising, compared with the first half of 2001. And 2001 was a bad year. The numbers are surprising especially since Yahoo and several national new sites reported an upturn for the internet ad business during Q2. But the Nielsen numbers say several advertisers have dropped from the top 10 compared to last year. Among them: eBay, Providian Financial, VeriSign and Ameritrade.

Overall the report shows a 2.3% overall spending increase so far this year. That’s roughly consistent with other forecasts. However, the media that showed growth were surprising. Local newspapers, which are supposedly suffering a decline in readership and ad lineage due to Internet competition, checked in at just over 9% growth. Hispanic TV, fueled in part by the World Cup broadcasts, shot up 7%. Network TV grew 5.6 % and cable TV logged a 3% increase.

The biggest category spender continued to be automobile, followed by restaurants, movies, department stores and prescription drugs. Advertising spending by the top ten parent companies generated $5.6 billion dollars through May 2002, 5.2% greater than the same period last year. Seven of these experienced growth, with Pfizer and Procter & Gamble increasing 32% and 21%, respectively. Much of Pfizer’s gain was due to increased spending in direct-to-consumer advertising for brands such as Lipitor, Zoloft, and Zyrtec. P&G’s increase can be attributed to new product advertising for brands such as Torengos, Crest Toothpaste Whitening/Scope, and Pampers Cruisers, Easy Ups, and Swaddlers.