Total advertising spend in the first half of 2007 went down 0.3 percent to $72.6 billion versus the same period in 2006, according to data released today by TNS Media Intelligence, a provider of advertising and marketing information.
“For the first time since 2001, media advertising expenditures have declined for two consecutive quarters,” said Steven Fredericks, president/CEO of TNS Media Intelligence. “While the protracted downturn in automotive spending has been a prime contributor, the overall results reflect weakness across a wide range of industries and advertisers. Given the uncertainties about near-term economic growth and consumer spending, we expect core ad spending will continue to face challenges during the second half of the year.”
Internet display advertising held tight to its growth leadership position with a 17.7 percent increase to $5.5 billion in ad-spend.
Consumer magazines experienced a 6.9 percent increase to $11.5 billion in advertising.
Outdoor advertising investments were up 3.6 percent to $1.9 billion and cable TV followed with a 2.8 percent increase to $8.3 billion.
Broadcast TV media continued to experience weakness in the second quarter and turned in significant half-year declines.
Network TV expenditures went down 3.6 percent to $11.8 billion, while ad spend on Spot TV dropped 5.4 percent to $7.3 billion. Syndication TV was down 5.3 percent to $2.00 billion.
Newspaper and radio plummeted during the second quarter. For the half-year period, ad spending in local newspapers plunged 5.7 percent to $11.1 billion on a reduction of 4.7 percent in space sold. Marketers lowered their radio advertising budgets by 2.7 percent, to a total of $5.1 billion.
“While total ad expenditures declined by 0.3 percent, there was unusually wide variation around this average from individual media types,” the TNS report said. “As a direct result, changes in share of spending by media type were more pronounced than normal.”
Internet display advertising swelled to 7.6 percent of total expenditures, up from 6.4 percent a year ago. Magazines gained 0.9 share points and finished the period at 20 percent of ad spending. Newspapers lost one full share point and slipped to 17.8 percent of total expenditures. National television and local television each lost share but still accounted for a combined 43.6 percent of all expenditures.
In the first half of 2007, the top 10 advertisers spent a total of $9 billion, a decrease of 2.2 percent from last year.
Second quarter spending for this group was up slightly, bouncing back from a steep 5.1 percent decline during the first three months.
Financial Services maintained its top position with $4.5 billion in expenditures, up 3.5 percent. Higher spending from retail banks offset reductions by credit card brands.
