• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, December 12, 2004

Who Ya Gonna Trust?

According to Nielsen Media Research's Monitor-Plus data for the first nine months of 2004, The U.S. Government spent $91.3 million on Spanish-language TV during the first three-quarters of the year. The figure shows a sharp increase from the same period in 2003, when the government spent $67.7 million, outpacing P&G, last year's No. 1, as well as PepsiCo and Sears, Roebuck & Co.

However, Carlos Santiago, president of Santiago Solutions, noted that the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) has yet to report on 2004, but last year it said the government spent $44.5 million from Jan.-Dec. 2003 for both TV and print combined. He suggested that, though both reports use data from rate cards provided by the networks, they do not take into consideration any discounts, which in some cases rack up to 50 percent.

Santiago theorized that the recent elections could have boosted the government's standing in the Nielsen rankings this year, and noted that researchers have an ongoing problem in dealing with networks that inflate their numbers, but "Everybody has done it at some point. Now, to what level? That's debatable."

Nielsen Monitor Plus Ad Spending on Spanish-Speaking TV

Rank	Company	1/2004 - 9/2004	1/2003 -9/2003
1	Us Government	$91,374,950	$67,764,232
2	Procter & Gamble Co	$79,136,377	$114,997,599
3	Univision Comm. Inc.	$60,968,192	$54,391,350
4	Lexicon Marketing Corp	$55,171,173	$83,743,377
5	Sears Roebuck & Co	$53,160,997	$88,626,815
6	Pepsico Inc	$52,678,608	$56,880,216
7	Johnson & Johnson	$48,293,922	$30,241,242
8	General Motors Corp	$44,849,219	$46,836,388
9	Mcdonalds Corp	$35,568,246	$43,221,793
10	Wal-Mart Stores Inc	$33,311,293	$20,760,589

Source: Nielsen Monitorplu s