U.S. Advertising Expenditures increased 0.9% in 2013

Total advertising expenditures increased 0.9 percent in 2013 and finished the year at $140.2 billion, according to data released today by Kantar Media, the leading provider of strategic advertising and marketing information. Ad spending during the fourth quarter of 2013 rose 1.6 percent versus the year ago period.

“Advertising growth eased in 2013 without the stimuli of Olympic and political spending. However, the market still registered a gain for the fourth consecutive year,” said Jon Swallen, Chief Research Officer at Kantar Media North America. “Although the macro theme of ad dollars moving to digital media still generates much discussion, another significant but less recognized trend has taken hold. The ad market is currently being carried by the Top 1000 advertisers who, as a group, are steadily spending more while the long-tail of small-sized marketers is sharply cutting back.”

Measured Ad Spending By Media – Cable, Internet Display Grow

The Television sector benefitted in 2013 from higher ad expenditures on sports programming while also taking a hit from the predictable every-other-year decline in spending associated with political and the Olympics. These competing forces shaped results for individual TV types.

Cable TV expenditures rose 7.3 percent in 2013 and were led by double digit growth in spending from the automotive, consumer package goods, restaurant and telecom categories. Cable was also helped by a 1.3 percent increase in the amount of paid ad time. Since emerging from the ad recession in 2010, the average cable network has raised its commercial load by nine percent.

Full year Network TV expenditures dropped 3.4 percent. Gains from live sports programming – most notably the NFL and post-season basketball and baseball – were erased by the absence of an Olympics event. For Spot TV, 2013 spending fell 8.1 percent versus the prior year when a torrent of political money boosted the market. The auto category remained a bright spot for spot TV sellers as local dealers continued to raise their media investments amidst a strong sales climate for new vehicles.

Spanish language TV ad spending was up 2.9 percent in 2013, paced by higher sell-out levels at over-the-air networks. Syndication expenditures increased 0.5 percent.

Spending for online display, which currently does not include video or mobile ad formats, accelerated in the second half of 2013 and finished the full year 15.7 percent higher versus the prior period. Increased investments from financial service, telecom and travel advertisers contributed significantly to the results.

Outdoor posted a 4.4 percent gain in ad expenditures for 2013. A prime contributor to this result was the continuing expansion of digital signage, which gives advertisers more flexibility when purchasing space and allows operators to get a higher price. Over the past four years digital outdoor spending has grown five times faster than the overall medium.

Expenditures in Consumer Magazines as calculated by rate card prices rose 2.6 percent but advertising pages were down 1.9 percent. Higher outlays from marketers of personal care products, apparel and prescription drugs were offset by reductions in the travel and direct response categories. Sunday Magazines saw their full year spending decline 2.6 percent but comparisons were affected by the presence of one extra Sunday in 2012 and this accounts for most of the difference.

Local Newspaper ad expenditures fell 3.8 percent in 2013 and National Newspapers dropped 3.6 percent. Each experienced broadly lower demand from Financial Service, Retail and Motion Picture marketers. Losses in spending were consistent with reductions in the amount of space sold. Spanish Language Newspapers fared much better with a gain of 1.9 percent for the year.

Radio media tumbled in 2013. Local Radio fell 4.1 percent and National Spot Radio declined 3.3 percent, primarily from cyclical reductions in political spending. Network Radio expenditures dropped 15.9 percent, largely due to a reduction in the number of monitored networks.

Measured Ad Spending By Advertiser – P&G in the Lead

Spending among the ten largest advertisers in 2013 reached $15,964.4 million, a 6.6 percent increase compared to a year ago. Among the Top 100 marketers, a diversified group representing more than two-fifths of all measured ad expenditures, spending was 3.3 percent higher.

Procter & Gamble was the top advertiser with expenditures of $3,173.0 million, up 11.8 percent compared to 2012. Spending increases were concentrated within its laundry, household cleaning and paper product brands.

General Motors was the second largest advertiser in 2013 with expenditures of $1,794.0 million, an increase of 10.0 percent. The gains were led by the Cadillac nameplate and marketing re-launches at the GMC truck division. At Toyota Motor, full year media expenditures rose 2.4 percent to $1,267.5 million behind a second-half push to promote redesigns of its popular Corolla sedan and Tundra pickup truck.

AT&T spending surged 15.2 percent to $1,793.8 million as the company continued to expand marketing support for its U-Verse video, voice and broadband service while also introducing its Digital Life service in select cities. Expenditures at rival Verizon Communications fell 13.3 percent to $1,219.2 million.

The largest growth rate among the Top Ten marketers was posted by Pfizer, up 26.8 percent to $1,138.2 million. The company undertook high-profile marketing launches for two new prescription medications while also boosting ad support for many existing Rx brands.

Comcast reduced its 2013 ad spending by 2.8 percent to $1,646.6 million. The company continued to boost spending for its Xfinity brand of bundled telecom services but these were offset by sharply lower spending at the movie studio division for a smaller number of new theatrical releases.
 

 
Measured Spending By Size of Advertiser – Small Advertisers Decline

The Top Ten advertisers are certainly large, but they represent just a small fraction of all spending and can be an incomplete indicator of broader trends. Ranking and grouping companies into tiers provides deeper insights about how different segments of advertisers are behaving compared to the average and where growth is occurring.

In 2013, there was a dramatic dividing line in the market with large and medium sized advertisers on one side and small marketers on the other.

Whereas the entire ad market had a +0.9 percent growth rate, expenditures for large marketers (defined as the Top 100) and their medium-size counterparts (those ranked 101-1000) each increased by 3.3 percent. These two slices had a 78 percent share of all ad expenditures.

Small advertisers, defined as those outside the Top 1000, accounted for the remaining 22 percent of ad spend and this tier reduced expenditures by 6.6 percent. Thus the growth rate spread between the top and bottom of the market was almost ten percentage points, an unusually wide difference. Having fewer resources and faced with a slow-growth economy, long-tail marketers have become more cautious.

Measured Ad Spending By Category – Major Increases for Telecom

Expenditures for the ten largest advertising categories grew 1.8 percent in 2013 and reached $88,334.1 million. Retail was the leading category in dollar volume and finished 2013 up 0.2 percent at $16,019.3 million. A late year pickup in ad spend from the department store and consumer electronics segments was cancelled out by persistent weakness among the apparel, jewelry, food and drug store segments.

Automotive was the second largest category with $15,211.8 million of spending, up 3.8 percent from the prior year. Manufacturer expenditures rose 3.8 percent and auto dealers spent 3.9 percent more. With the auto market recovery completing its fourth year, ad spending is still being pushed higher by the large number of new car buyers and a steady flow of marketing launches for new and redesigned models.

Telecom finished the year with expenditures of $9,358.5 million, an 8.2 percent increase that was best among the Top Ten categories. Growth was propelled by well-funded smartphone model introductions from Nokia, Blackberry and Motorola. By contrast, spending from wireless providers had a very small gain and investments from TV service providers turned downward.

Insurance cracked the Top Ten rankings as spending rose 8.1 percent to $5,271.6 million. While auto insurers remain the dominant face of the category, there was a significant spending increase from health insurance organizations tied to the rollout of federal and state insurance exchanges mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

Media expenditures for Financial Services fell 4.1 percent to $7,600.2 million. Weakness in ad budgets for credit cards and retail banking negated higher spending for consumer lending, particularly home mortgage loans.