• by Karl Greenberg , April 1, 2008

It may be emblematic of where the U.S. consumer goods market is going versus the automotive market.

Overall, ad spend was up by a mere 0.6% last year, per the Nielsen Company, which reported Monday that in 2007, the top 10 companies spent $17.9 billion in measured media--down an average of 4% from 2006. Among them, Procter & Gamble, Verizon Communications and AT&T were the only companies that increased their marketing budgets last year.

Nielsen said autos, traditionally the biggest spender, also had the greatest dollar and percent decline--amounting to $1.48 billion, or 11%. Financial/Investment Services had the fastest percentage growth, up 14%--although Wireless Telephone Services, with an increase of $422 million last year, had the greatest increase in dollars.

The firm says Procter & Gamble boosted its budget by $205 million last year to support brands like Pantene Pro-V Hair Care Products, Gillette Fusion Razor-Electric Power, Cover Girl Volume Exact Mascara, and Olay Definity Moisturizing Facial Deep Penetrating Foaming.

By contrast, General Motors showed the largest advertising decline, spending $267 million less last year than in 2006. The company cut back--predictably--on SUVs support, cutting dollars for products like Chevrolet Tahoe Trucks, GMC Yukon Trucks, and Hummer H3 Trucks. Ford's ad spend was down 4%, while Toyota's was down 7%.

The Internet continued to demonstrate the strongest performance (+18.9%) of any media category.

According to preliminary figures from Nielsen Monitor-Plus, advertising spending was mixed. Media that enjoyed an increase in ad spend included national magazines, up 7.6%; outdoor, up 7.2%; national Sunday supplements, up 4.9%; national cable TV, up 2.2%; and Spanish-language TV up 1.5%.

Among media seeing fewer ad bucks: network TV, by 1.5%; local magazines, by 1.5%; and national and local newspapers, by 7.7% and 7.5%, respectively.

Nielsen says product placement is also down 13%. Coca-Cola's product integration with Fox's "American Idol" made it the top brand in product placement last year and in 2006. Nielsen says the top product placement TV properties last year were reality shows: "American Idol," "The Biggest Loser," "Fast Cars and Superstars" and "America's Next Top Model."

*Editor's note: This story was amended after posting to reflect a change in context. The original headline referred to ad spend for the Top 10 companies, which was down 4% in '07. Reference should have been to overall spend, which was up 0.6%.