• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, August 31, 2012

While there is some evidence that more major advertisers may look to trim ad dollars, three highly competitive categories appear to be moving in the other direction. Leaders in autos, noncarbonated beverages and consumer package goods (CPG) indicated spending would be up in their recent earnings calls, although not necessarily by large margins.
 
General Motors and Ford indicated that marketing spending would be up. Coke, PepsiCo and Dr. Pepper Snapple did the same.
 
Meanwhile, ad sellers doing heavy business in the CPG field had to be heartened with the list of companies suggesting increases: Procter & Gamble, Unilever, General Mills, Nestle, Kraft, Kellogg, Campbell Soup, Hershey, Kimberly-Clark and Reckitt Benckiser.
 
Many companies did not address marketing spending in their conference calls, such as Chrysler and Toyota, and Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors.
 
In telecom, AT&T and Verizon offered no commentary, while Sprint indicated a decline is coming. In retail, Wal-Mart, Target and Kohl’s suggested increases, while JCPenney indicated a drop and Sears and Macy’s did not address the issue.
 
Outside traditional ads, companies continue to emphasize social media investment, particularly in the CPG and retail categories.
 
The findings come from Barclays’ Advertising Almanac, which looks at earnings call transcripts from the top-100 U.S. advertisers.
 
The Wall Street firm said a higher percentage of companies offering guidance suggested a drop would be coming. After the first quarter, four out of 28 (14%) did so. More recently, the figure was eight out of 40 (20%).
 
For companies hinting at an increase, Barclays wrote it found “none” indicating “plans to significantly grow their ad spend.” Of course, earnings calls offer a mixed bag. Some companies want to impress investors with predictions of spending jumps, while others are guarded about giving away competitive information.
 
Barclays found that in second-quarter reports, eight companies tagged social media as an area of emphasis, continuing a first-quarter trend.
 
Other companies indicating a decline in spending include Bank of America, Sony, GlaxoSmithKline, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vitton and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

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