• by Joe Mandese , June 10, 2005

Nielsen Media Research Thursday provided the latest evidence of a slowdown in national ad spending that began during the first quarter of 2005. The data, from Nielsen's Monitor-Plus ad monitoring division, shows that ad spending across the media it measures rose only 2.4 percent over the first quarter of 2004. The slowdown appears most acute among some major marketers, especially the nation's largest, Procter & Gamble, which slashed its first quarter ad budget 8.2 percent from the first quarter of 2004. Other biggies to take a dip included top 10 advertisers like Walt Disney Co. (-3.5 percent) and telecommunications giant SBC Communications (-3.6 percent). Overall, the top ten marketers outpaced the industry's average, rising 8.1 percent, thanks to big hikes from Ford, Johnson & Johnson and Altria, but that action masks some slowdowns across entire advertising categories.

Two of the most dynamic ad categories in recent quarters - direct-to-consumer prescription drugs and motion picture marketing - were down 2.8 percent and 11.2 percent respectively during the quarter. Department store spending also ebbed 0.7 percent.

The impact was mixed across the major media tracked by Monitor-Plus. Spanish-language TV outlets experienced the greatest upswing, rising 19.3 percent over the first quarter of 2004, followed by cable TV (+12.4 percent) and local magazines (+12.1 percent). Other media experienced single digit growth or decreases, especially spot broadcast TV ad sales in the top 100 markets, which fell 4.2 percent from the first quarter of 2004.

The Monitor-Plus data does not include online ad spending, which has been rising at very strong double-digit rates so far this year, according to a variety of other sources.

However, the report did include data on product placement growth from Nielsen's new tracking service in that category, which showed 12,867 placements among the top 10 prime-time TV shows during the first quarter of the year, more than half as much as the 23,526 placements that occurred in the top 10 shows during all of 2004.

"Illustrating just how quickly product placement is growing, the number one brand, Coca-Cola Classic, had 1,931 brand occurrences for the quarter, compared to 2,320 for all of last year," noted Jeff King, managing director of the Nielsen unit.

Top 10 Advertisers
January-March 2005
	Q1 '05 (millions)	Change
General Motors Corp.	$812	+5.8%
Procter & Gamble Co.	$677	-8.2%
Ford Motor Co.	$624	+23.2%
Toyota Motor Corp.	$442	+14.5%
DaimlerChrysler AG	$430	+0.6%
Time Warn er	$424	+16.0%
Johnson & Johnson	$400	+21.4%
Walt Disney  Co.	$392	-3.5%
Altria Group	$351	+38.2%
SBC Communications	$295	-3.6%
Total	$4,846	+8.1%

Source: Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Note: Automotive Advertisers reflects Factory and Dealer Association spending. Based on spending estimates in the following media: Network TV, Spot TV, Syndicated TV, Hispanic TV, Nat'l/Local Magazine, Network/Spot Radio, Outdoor, FSI (CPGs only), Nat'l/Local Newspapers (display ads only), Nat'l/Local Sunday Supplements