Nielsen: Ad Spend Flat For Q1

Unless you worked at a national magazine, local newspaper or Hispanic TV network, Q1 was a wash. That's according to data released yesterday from Nielsen Media Research.

Advertising spending increased in six of the ten reported media, with growth rates ranging from under 1% to over 15%. Hispanic television experienced the greatest gain, at 15%, while national magazines grew 14%, and local newspapers rose almost 9%.

Advertising spending declined in four of the reported media, with network TV, cable TV, syndicated TV, and national newspapers each falling about 5%, compared with the same period last year. TV lost out because of its comparison with the Olympics last year, and this year's advertiser bailout from the Iraqi conflict.

"Television greatly benefited in 2002 because of the advertising expenditures associated with the Olympics," said Jeff King, managing director of Nielsen Monitor-Plus. "Conversely, 2003 is disadvantaged because the Iraqi war resulted in some preemption of regularly scheduled shows and possibly contributed to a slowing of the overall advertising growth rate. Expectations for total-year advertising revenue, based on optimistic predictions coming out of the TV upfront, certainly outpace the modest growth of the first quarter."

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The most notable change among top ten advertisers of the quarter was that GM bailed and Ford picked up its pace. The biggest car company dropped 24 % of its budget for Q1 and Ford revved its up by 55%. Other notables included Sony (+47%) and Walt Disney (+24%). Ford significantly increased budgets for their Escape, Expedition, Explorer, and Lincoln Aviator vehicles. Sony and Disney's growth was largely due to increased spending on motion pictures. Sony's 2003 movies include "Tears of the Sun" ($22 million in advertising spending), "National Security" ($17 million), "Darkness Falls" ($18 million), and "Adaptation" ($9 million), while Disney's increase is largely due to spending on "Recruit" ($23 million), "Shanghai Knights" ($21 million),"Chicago" ($19 million), and "Gangs of New York" ($11 million).

Spending for the top 10 categories, which were also the largest categories last year, was $5 billion dollars for the first three months of 2003, 5% greater than the same period last year. The most significant growth was seen in the automotive category which collectively spent more than $2 billion. Brand advertising slightly decreased. However, this decline was more than offset by the increases in dealer association (+71%,) and local dealership (+13%) advertising. Also notable from the category perspective was last year's high-flyer, pharmaceuticals, which increased only two percent.

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