U.S. Ad Spend down 9% in 2009.

U.S. ad spending declined nine percent in 2009, according to preliminary figures released today by The Nielsen Company. Spending fell an estimated $11.6 billion to a total of $117 billion last year. The figures continue a trend of at least six straight quarters of negative growth in the ad industry, but it’s a trend that shows evidence of slowing down. In the previous two quarters, Nielsen reported declines of 15.4% and 11.5%.

“Fourth quarter ad spending was down just two percent year-over-year, and that helped soften the full-year decline,” said Terrie Brennan, senior VP for new business development at The Nielsen Company. “In fact, most of the top advertisers showed increased spending late in the year. These are encouraging signs for an ad market that’s still trying to stop the bleeding.”

Ad spend declines are easing up even in print media, which have taken more than their share of lumps over the last few years. National Newspapers were down 13.7% last year, but it’s an improvement from the -21.6% pace that Nielsen reported through the first three quarters of 2009. Local Newspapers finished relatively strong in 2009, cutting its reported 14% decline in ad revenue through the third quarter to -10.4% by year’s end.

Spanish Language Cable TV (+32.2%) and Cable TV (+14.8%) stood out as the top-gaining media in 2009. Free-Standing Insert Coupon (+11.5) was the only other medium to show significant year-over-year growth. Internet (+0.1%) remained essentially flat.

African-American TV (a subset of network, cable, and syndicated) enjoyed a 13.8% increase in spending year-over-year. Spanish language TV (cable and network combined) fell 0.4%.

PRODUCT CATEGORY AD SPENDING

Spending by the top ten product categories was down 9.5% in 2009. The automotive industry was the top category with over $8 billion spent last year. Pharmaceutical, Quick Service Restaurants, and Department Stores were next on the list, with each category showing year-over-year gains.

There was some notable activity among product categories outside the top 10. Investment Services not only saw ad spending fall 14% to $1.3 billion in 2009, but the category also had about 1000 fewer advertisers in 2009 compared to 2008. On the other hand, spending by web-based advertisers climbed 32% to $1.1 billion, paced by dramatic spending increases by Hulu and Bing.

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