Report: U.S. Adspend Up 5.1 Percent in Q1

NEW YORK: In the first quarter of 2010, total advertising expenditures increased 5.1 percent from a year ago, according to Kantar Media, finishing the period at $31.3 billion.

This is the first increase in quarterly ad spending since Q1 2008 and the largest gain since Q1 2006. Ad spending on television grew by 10.5 percent, with network TV up 11.6 percent, cable TV up 8.2 percent and spot TV jumped 22 percent. Spanish-language TV also saw an increase, of 7.2 percent, while syndication was the only segment that took a hit, down 13.2 percent.

“With the economy turning from recession towards growth, marketers appear to be more confident about a pickup in consumer activity and have increased ad budgets to support their brands,” said Jon Swallen, the senior VP of research at Kantar Media. “While the rising tide has thus far benefitted some media sectors more than others, Q1 spending hikes were broadly distributed across advertisers and categories and that’s an encouraging signal for the market going forward.”