Nielsen: Automotive Advertising.

With the 2006 auto models rolling into the showrooms shortly, Nielsen Monitor-Plus takes a closer look at how the automotive industry distributes its advertising dollars.

Automotive Advertising Across Media

During the first half of 2005, automotive (Factory & Dealer Associations) ad spending was over $6.7 billion, representing an increase of 7.4% compared to the same period in 2004. Nearly 80% ($5.3 billion) of all automotive dollars were placed in television, while 11% ($781 million) was in national magazines. Spending in cable TV grew 24%; leading the way was Ford who doubled their cable budget to $136 million, Volkswagen increasing their spending 238% to $35.5 million, and Honda reaching $71.3 million. Network Radio experienced a decline of 26.3%, partly due to Ford, Toyota, and DaimlerChrysler reducing their budgets in this medium in the first half of 2005.

The Local Automotive Dealerships have held their ad spending steady compared to last year. For the first half of 2005, Local Dealerships accounted for $2.5 billion in spending, just 1% greater than the same time in 2004. The great majority of the spending was in Local Newspapers ($1.8 billion), followed by Spot TV ($457 million).

Top Auto Advertisers

The top 10 Auto Advertisers spent close to $4 billion in the first half of the year 2005. Ford was the number one advertiser, with $768 million in spending, which represents a 19.5% increase. General Motors showed the biggest percent increase (78%), raising their ad budget to $215 million this year. Four of the top 10 advertisers cut back their spending, ranging from Chevrolet at -2% to Chrysler at -18%.

Automotive Product Placement

Nielsen’s Product Placement tracking service showed significant growth in the integration of product occurrences in primetime broadcast network programming. The top 10 automotive brands in the product placement category totaled 2,636 occurrences in the first half of the year. Last year, the top 10 auto brands accounted for 1,925 placements.

The top 10 programs that featured automotive product placements in the first half accounted for 2,597 occurrences, growing from 1,422 placements last year. The Contender was the number one program, with more than triple the amount of product placements than the number two program, Amazing Race, 843 and 279, respectively.

In May 2005, Nielsen’s Product Placement service started tracking the presence of police cars, taxis, and limos. During the May-June 2005 period, 7.4% of the 1,245 automotive placements in primetime TV were police cars, taxis, or limousines. Chevrolet was the most popular police car brand, Ford was shown the most times as a taxi, and Lincoln was the top choice for limousines. Police cars and taxis were included in a wide variety of program genres, while limos were most often shown on reality programs such as The Cut, The Apprentice, and America’s Top Model.

New Brands

$848 million was spent by auto brands that had advertising activity in the first half of 2005, but were not active for the same period in 2004. The chart below features the new brands that had the largest advertising budgets. The top 10 brands collectively spent $556 million, ranging from the Chevrolet Cobalt ($83.6 million) to the Land Rover LR Truck with a budget of $31.9 million.

For more information at http://www.vnu.com