Braking: Auto Marketers Drop 10% In Ad Spend
Big Auto is begging for a bailout. So it's no surprise that automotive marketers dropped an overall 10% in their ad spending through the first half of 2008 to $6.1 billion--with only the import brands improving on average overall.
According to Nielsen Monitor Plus, Toyota Motor Corp.--the No. 2 auto in terms of media spending--was at $999 million, the same level as 2007. No. 4, Honda Motor Co., was 13% better than a year ago--to $621.6 million. Other smaller imports: Daimler AG was up 48%, Volkswagen was 23% higher and Mazda was 4% improved.
However, the big U.S. automotives have been in major cutback mode--with possibly more to come in the second half of the year. The biggest, General Motors, slipped 6% to $1.2 billion. Ford Motor and Cerberus (home of Chrysler) had it worse: down 22% each to $954 million and $593 million, respectively.
Not all imports were in positive territory, either. Nissan Motor was down 15% to $513 million, and Hyundai Motor was off 17% to $244 million.
Television still dominates media market share for the autos. Of the total $6 billion spent on car and truck ads, more than $5 billion (83%) were placed in television, while $640 million (11%) were placed in magazines.
But TV was down overall, with the biggest hits coming for national spot TV--the largest media spend segment for autos. The category endured a 7% decline; network TV, the second-biggest category, was off 10%. Only cable TV showed gains--up 5%.
The only other medium to see gains during this period was local magazines, which were 23% better than a year ago to $4 million.
National magazines--the fourth-biggest segment--continued to spiral down, dropping 23%, the same rate of decline for local newspapers.
Here's the full list of media segments for the automotive industry:
| Rank | Media Type | Jan-July 2008 | % Change |
| 1 | Spot TV | $2,568.20 | -7% |
| 2 | Network TV | $1,335.20 | -10% |
| 3 | Cable TV | $881.90 | 5% |
| 4 | National Magazine | $622.70 | -23% |
| 5 | Spanish-Language Network & Cable | $174.20 | -8% |
| 6 | Local Newspaper | $132.30 | -23% |
| 7 | Spot Radio | $120.80 | -31% |
| 8 | Outdoor | $71.70 | -19% |
| 9 | Network Radio | $45.70 | 0% |
| 10 | Syndicated TV | $42.90 | -16% |
| 11 | National Newspapers | $39.70 | -30% |
| 12 | B-to-B Magazines | $13.70 | -27% |
| 13 | National & Local Sunday Supplement | $5.50 | -20% |
| 14 | Local Magazine | $4.00 | 23% |
| Totals |
| $6,058.60 | -10% |
| Source: Nielsen Monitor Plus | |||
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