NEW YORK: U.S. ad spending fell 9 percent last year, according to preliminary figures released today by Nielsen. Spending fell an estimated $11.6 billion to a total of $117 billion last year. The figures represent a trend of at least six straight quarters of decline 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 percent.
“Fourth quarter ad spending was down just 2 percent year-over-year, and that helped soften the full-year decline,” said Terrie Brennan, senior vice president for new business development at Nielsen. “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.”
Of product categories, Automotive led the decline with a 23.4 percent reduction in year-over-year spending. Factory and dealers associations spent $10.5 billion in 2008 compared to just over $8 billion in 2009. Local car dealerships spent $3.23 billion, down 23 percent from nearly $4.2 billion in 2008.
2009-to-2008 Change in Ad Spending by Media:
Spanish Language Cable TV32.2%
Cable TV14.8%
FSI Coupon11.5%
Internet**0.1%
Spanish Language Network TV -3.9%
National Sunday Supplement-7.2%
Spot Radio-8.7%
Network Radio-9.7%
Network TV-9.9%
Local Newspaper �� -10.4%
Outdoor-11.2%
National Newspaper-13.7%
Spot TV 101-210-14.2%
Syndicated TV-14.7%
Spot TV Top 100-16.1%
National Magazine-19.3%
Local Magazine-23.9%
B2B-32.7%
Local Sunday Supplement-44.9%
Total-9.0%
