Commentary

Data Details On the Ad Expenditure Decline Through June of 2009

According to data recently released by TNS Media Intelligence, total measured advertising expenditures in the first six months of 2009 fell 14.3% versus a year ago, to $60.87 billion,. Ad spending during the second quarter of 2009 was off 13.9% compared to last year, the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year declines.

Jon Swallen, SVP Research at TNS Media Intelligence, notes that "...the market has been steadily tracking at around 14% declines for several consecutive months... (but) early data from third quarter hint at possible improvements for some media due to easy comparisons against distressed levels of year ago expenditures..."

Internet display and FSI's were the only media to achieve expenditure growth in the first half of 2009. Print media continued to suffer large rollbacks in ad pages from key categories and this resulted in aggregate spending declines for Newspaper media and Magazine media. Within these broad sectors, there was little difference in the performance of individual media sub-types. Total spending in Radio media was down due to ongoing weakness in automotive, retail and local services. Among Television media, ad spending on Network TV declined as did Cable TV slipped in the first half of 2009.

Percent Change in Measured Ad Spending (Jan-June 2009 vs. Jan-June 2008)

Media sector & Sub-Type (in rank order of 2009 spending)

% Change

Television media

-10.0%

   Network TV

-5.5%

   Cable TV

-3.6%

   Spot TV  2

-27.1%

   Syndication - National

-0.7%

   Spanish Language TV

-12.7%

Magazine media  

-20.9%

   Consumer Magazines

-20.1%

   B-to-B Magazines

-26.7%

   Sunday Magazines

-18.6%

   Local Magazines

-25.7%

   Spanish Language Magazines

-27.3%

Newspaper media  

-24.2%

   Newspapers (Local)

-24.1%

   National Newspapers

-24.9%

   Spanish Language Newspapers

-20.5%

Internet (display ads only)

6.5%

Radio media

-24.6%

   Local Radio

-25.5%

   National Spot Radio

-29.2%

   Network Radio

-8.7%

Outdoor

-15.7%

FSIs  

4.6%

Total

-14.3%

Source: TNS Media Intelligence, September 2009

The top 10 advertisers in the first six months of 2009 spent a combined total of $7,866.4 million, a 3.5% decrease from last year. Across the top 100 companies, a more diversified group of marketers representing almost one-half of total ad expenditures, spending fell by 6.2%. Media companies rounded out the Top 10. At each of these advertisers, results were primarily shaped by their movie studio divisions.

Top Ten Advertisers (Jan-June 2009 vs. Jan-June 2008)

Rank

Company

Jan-June 2009 (Millions $)

Jan-June 2008 (Millions $)

% Change

1

Verizon Communications Inc

$1,188.4

$1,152.6

3.1%

2

Procter & Gamble Co

$1,178.4

$1,472.9

-20.0%

3

AT&T Inc

$976.8

$919.3

6.3%

4

Johnson & Johnson

$805.9

$683.1

18.0%

5

General Motors Corp

$773.1

$1,043.5

-25.9%

6

News Corp

$672.3

$722.4

-6.9%

7

Sprint Nextel Corp

$631.1

$406.5

55.3%

8

Time Warner Inc

$574.3

$645.7

-11.1%

9

General Electric Co

$548.3

$521.5

5.1%

10

Walt Disney Co

$517.6

$585.9

-11.7%

 

Total

$7,866.4

$8,153.3

-3.5%

Source: TNS Media Intelligence, September 2009

The ten largest advertising categories in the first half of 2009 spent a total of $33,588.8 million, a drop of 14.5% from a year ago. Automotive barely held on to the top spot after expenditures plunged. Dealer spending was off more sharply than manufacturers.

Heightened competition among wireless phone companies and TV service providers boosted Telecommunications category spending.. Financial Services advertising sank as consumer lending seized up and credit card companies and loan providers severely curtailed their marketing programs. Consumer-packaged goods, traditionally looked to as a pillar of strength in advertising recessions, performed better than the overall ad market but still wound up in negative territory.

Top Ten Advertising Categories (Jan-June 2009 vs. Jan-June 2008)

Rank

Category

Jan-June 2009 (Millions)

Jan-June 2008 (Millions)

% Change

1

Automotive

$4,449.5

$6,462.0

-31.1%

 

   Manufacturers

$3,168.7

$4,039.7

-21.6%

 

   Dealers

$1,280.9

$2,422.3

-47.1%

2

Telecom

$4,276.4

$3,976.9

7.5%

3

Financial Services

$3,752.1

$4,955.0

-24.3%

4

Local Services & Amusements

$3,723.2

$4,423.3

-15.8%

5

Direct Response

$3,277.4

$3,824.2

-14.3%

6

Miscellaneous Retail1

$3,142.1

$3,833.1

-18.0%

7

Food & Candy

$3,031.9

$3,181.2

-4.7%

8

Restaurants

$2,866.4

$2,848.0

0.6%

9

Personal Care Products

$2,662.5

$2,947.6

-9.7%

10

Travel & Tourism

$2,407.3

$2,840.6

-15.3%

 

Total

$33,588.8

$39,291.8

-14.5%

Source: TNS Media Intelligence, September 2009

Elsewhere, the impact of the housing market slowdown was reflected in sharply lower ad spending from housing-related categories.

Housing-Related Advertising Categories (Jan-June 2009 vs. Jan-June 2008)

Category

Jan-June 2009 (Millions)

Jan-June 2008 (Millions)

% Change

Home & Building Retailers

$1,696.7

$2,220.6

-23.6%

Real Estate

$551.3

$1,118.2

-50.7%

Home Furnishings & Appliances

$428.7

$530.3

-19.2%

Building Materials

$357.2

$428.4

-16.6%

Total

$3,033.9

$4,297.5

-29.4%

Source: TNS Media Intelligence, September 2009

Branded entertainment tracking identifies brand appearances and measures their duration and attributes. The report concludes that duration is a more relevant metric than a count of occurrences for quantifying and comparing the gross amount of brand activity that viewers are potentially exposed to in the program versus in the commercial breaks.

In the second quarter of 2009, an average hour of monitored prime time network programming contained 9 minutes, 51 seconds of in-show brand appearances, and 14:05 per hour of network commercial messages. The combined total of 23:56 per hour of marketing clutter represents 40% of a prime-time hour.

To read the complete report, please visit TNS Media Intelligence here.

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