U.S. Adspend Up 6.5 Percent for 2010

NEW YORK: Total U.S. advertising expenditures for 2010 increased 6.5 percent, according to data from Kantar Media, finishing the year at $131.1 billion.

In the fourth quarter, ad spending was up 7 percent over the year prior. Expenditures on spot ads was up 24.2 percent in 2010, due in part to the surge in political advertising, the revival of the automotive category and a budget shift among retail bank advertisers. Spending in the Spanish-language segment rose 10.7 percent, given a boost by the World Cup. Ads for cable TV were up 9.8 percent, while network TV gained 5.3 percent.

“The feel-good headline is the ad economy grew by 6.5 percent in 2010,” said Jon Swallen, the senior VP of research at Kantar Media North America. “The more comprehensive assessment is that increased spending has not benefited all sectors equally. While television media have recouped their losses from the 2009 advertising downturn, several other large segments are still 15- to 20-percent below their 2008 peaks.”

Spending among the ten largest advertisers in 2010 reached $16.4 billion, a 3.7-percent gain on last year. This is the eighth consecutive year that Procter & Gamble was the top advertiser, with spending of $3.1 billion, up 17.7 percent on 2009. News Corp. upped its spending by 10.5 percent, to $1.4 billion in 2010, while Time Warner reduced its expenditures by 0.5 percent, to $1.2 billion for the year.

Branded entertainment was another big area for 2010. In the fourth quarter, an average hour of prime-time network programming contained 6 minutes, 57 seconds (6:57) of in-show brand appearances and 14:50 of network commercial messages. This combined total of 21:47 represents 36 percent of a prime-time hour. During unscripted reality programming, there was an average of 14:19 per hour of brand appearances, compared to the 4:50 per hour for scripted shows. Late-night network talk shows had an average of 10:31 per hour.