• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 2, 2005

Fueled by a 7.3 percent boost in its advertising budget, General Motors Corp. emerged as the nation's largest advertiser during the first nine months of 2005, nudging out alpha marketer Procter & Gamble, which has been cutting back on spending in the conventional media measured by syndicated ad spending researcher Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Despite a 5.6 percent cut by DaimlerChrysler, which slipped behind Ford the nation's third largest advertiser, the auto category has been quite healthy, account for $5.4 billion during the first three quarters, and outpacing the overall growth among the top 10 advertising categories (see table below).

But according to new ad spending projections for specific industries in 2006 released Thursday by Wall Street securities firm Merrill Lynch, the auto rev-up may not be sustainable. Auto advertising, the largest category for many media, is expected to be essentially flat, climbing just 0.2 percent over 2005, and will trail Merrill Lynch's overall U.S. ad growth projection of 3.4 percent next year (see related story in today's MediaDailyNews).

In fact, automotive failed to keep pace with the overall ad industry during 2005. According to Monitor-Plus, the category grew only 2.9 percent during the first nine months, compared with a 4.5 percent rate of growth for the overall U.S. ad marketplace.

The auto downturn has been especially devastating for some media more than others. While national automotive ad spending kept pace with the U.S. ad economy, rising 4.7 percent, spending by local dealers actually fell 0.4 percent.

In fact, most of the top ad categories have trailed the U.S. ad economy, growing at less than half the total ad marketplace. That's reflected in P&G's slide, but it could be that the cutbacks are less an indicator of underlying health in marketing budgets, as it is a sign of shifts taking place across the marketing mix. The Monitor-Plus data tracks most of the major media, but it does not track other forms of media and marketing that P&G and other marketers may be shifting to. In 2004, P&G began moving toward a communications planning approach in an effort to become less reliant on traditionally measured media.

Top 10 Advertisers
January - September 2005
	Ad Dollars ($ Mil)	Change
General M otors                                &nb sp;	$2,548	+7.3%
Procter & Gamble	$2,528	-2.8%
Ford Motor Co.                                         &n bsp;	$1,640	+3.8%
DaimlerChrysler	$1,297	-5.6%
Time Warner	$1,206	+15.5%
Johnson & Johnson	$1,132	+17.9%
Altria Group	$971	+15.3%
PepsiCo	$952	+23.8%
Walt Disney Co.	$896	-11.2%
AT&T	$885	-28.9%
Top 10 Total	$14,059	+1.8%
All Advertisers	NA	+4.5%
Source: Nielsen Monitor-Plus.Automotive Advertisers reflects Factory and Dealer Association spending. Based on spending estimates in the following media: Network TV, Cable 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