• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 27, 2004

Fueled by spending among the nation's largest advertisers, U.S. ad spending rose 7.9 percent during the first quarter of 2004 among the major media tracked by Nielsen Monitor-Plus. That's a somewhat higher rate of increase than many of Madison Avenue's top forecasters had predicted, and it was driven mainly by the biggest spenders. Spending among the top ten advertisers rose 15.8 percent, more than double the rate of the overall marketplace.

Procter & Gamble, up 23.1 percent, remained the nation's largest advertiser and actually increased its margin over No. 2 advertiser, General Motors, which boosted spending 18.5 percent over the first quarter of 2003. Overall, the automotive category proved among the most dynamic. DaimlerChrysler boosted spending $31.7 percent, the highest rate of the top ten, while Ford rose 13.0 percent. In fact, the overall automaker category rose 21.6 percent during the quarter, though much of that boost likely came from a shift out of local dealer spending, which declined 30.8 percent.

Those shifts mirror the overall ad market growth of the major media, which was led by cable TV (+15.9 percent), followed by broadcast network TV (+10.4 percent). Spot TV spending rose only 7.1%, less than the overall rate of ad spending growth for all media.

Ad spending on Spanish-language TV networks, which had been thought to be one of the fastest-growing segments of the media marketplace, inexplicably fell 12.9 percent during the quarter, making it the weakest ad medium, according to Monitor-Plus.

Top 10 Q1 Advertisers

                     Q1 Ad Spending    Vs. Q1 '03 
Procter & Gamble     $744 million          +23.1% 
General Motors       $613 million          +18.5% 
Walt
Disney Co.      $405 million           +4.2% 
DaimlerChrysler      $375 million          +31.7% 
Time Warner          $356 million           +1.3% 
Ford Motor Co.       $339 million
+13.0% 
Johnson & Johnson    $329 million           +9.3% 
Pfizer               $271 million           +9.7% 
GlaxoSmithKline      $268 million          +29.4% 
PepsiCo              $267
million          +18.9% 

Top 10 Total       $3.966 billion          +15.8%     

Source: Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Based on spending estimates in the following media: Network TV, Spot TV, Syndicated TV, Hispanic TV, Nat'l/Local Magazine, Network/Spot Radio (20 mkts.), Outdoor, FSI (CPGs only), Nat'l/Local Newspapers (display ads only), Nat'l/Local Sunday Supplements