• by Paul Gough , April 7, 2004

Although national radio advertising had a tough 2003, it seemed to work just fine for most of the industry's top advertisers. Eighteen of the top 25 national radio advertisers increased their radio ad spending last year.

The top 25 advertisers accounted for about $1.3 billion of national spot and network radio advertising in 2003, according to an Interep analysis of TNS Media Intelligence/CMR data. That's up 23 percent compared to 2002, when radio--and the rest of the advertising market--was still mired in the advertising recession. About $3.63 billion was spent on national spot and network radio in 2003, according to CMR.

Last year's top advertiser in national spot was SBC Communications, which included Cingular Wireless as well as SBC Internet and long-distance services. SBC's total of $145 million on national spot radio was ahead of second-place Home Depot, which spent $104 million on national spot radio.

The rest of the top five were DaimlerChrysler Dealers ($85.7 million), Time Warner ($85 million), and Verizon ($79.3 million). DaimlerChrysler itself spent $28.1 million on national radio advertising, to arrive at 21st place.

Twenty of the year's top national radio advertisers were the same as last year. New entrants were DaimlerChrysler, Safeway, Ford Motor Co., Pfizer and All State Corp. Dropping off the top 25 list were Signet Corp., Volkswagen Dealers Association, Sony, and Texas Pacific Group. Also missing from the top 25 list was political advertising, which CMR groups together for the purpose of this listing. It's well-known that 2003 wasn't anywhere near as strong a year for political advertising as 2002 had been.

The top 25 advertisers represent 35 percent of the total national radio advertising spend, which traditionally is about 20 percent of total ad dollars spent in radio annually. The top 25's market share has been steadily increasing since 2000, when it was 25 percent of the total national radio ad spend.

Retail was the top national radio ad category in 2003, as it is every year, representing 17.1 percent of total ad dollars. Auto-related advertising accounted for 11 percent, with telecom 10.3 percent and media 9.7 percent.

"Because last year was such a year of economic ups and downs, with the war and the downturn in the fourth quarter, advertisers might have been turning to radio more because of its flexibility and its shorter lead time, compared to television and print," Skettino said. "I think advertisers nowadays are also very concerned with efficiency and return on investment, and radio appears to be giving them what they're looking for."