TNS: U.S. Adspend Flat in 2007

NEW YORK, March 26:
Advertising spending in the U.S. rose just 0.2 percent in 2007 to reach $148.99
billion, according to TNS Media Intelligence, while fourth-quarter adspend was
down 0.1 percent on the year-ago period.

“The ad market remains
stalled and is being engulfed by the spreading pessimism about general economic
conditions,” said Jon Swallen, the senior VP Research at TNS Media
Intelligence. “Fourth-quarter performance was indicative of this malaise and
early figures from 2008 suggest the growth rate for measured ad spending has
not appreciably changed. A cyclical boost from the elections and Olympics still
waits on the horizon. However, marketers are being cautious with their core ad
budgets faced with concerns about consumer spending and corporate profits.”

Internet display
advertising continued its growth leadership, increasing 15.9 percent in 2007 to
$11.31 billion in expenditures. Cable-TV spending surged in the second half and
finished 2007 at $17.84 billion, an increase of 6.5 percent. Network TV
expenditures declined by 2 percent to $22.43 billion. Spot TV, in the face of
difficult comparisons against record levels of political advertising in 2006,
plummeted 10.2 percent to $15.59 billion. Syndication TV fell 1.5 percent to
$4.17 billion. Spanish-language TV adspend, meanwhile, rose to $4.38 billion
from $4.33 billion.

National television’s
share of the ad market for 2007 was 32 percent, local TV’s share was 11.3
percent and the Internet’s was 7.6 percent.

The top ten advertisers of
2007 spent a combined total of $18.66 billion in measured media, a drop of 0.3
percent compared to 2006. Procter & Gamble was again the largest advertiser
with $3.49 billion in spending, up 5.6 percent versus a year ago. Verizon
Communications posted the highest growth rate among the top ten, up 11.1
percent to $2.14 billion. The largest decrease in the group was from General
Motors, where 2007 outlays fell 7.7 percent to $2.11 billion. Also in the top
ten was Time Warner, whose adspend rose to $1.71 billion; The Walt Disney
Company, where advertising outlay dropped to $1.38 billion; and News
Corporation, whose adspend was down slightly to $1.3 billon.

TNS also monitors branded
entertainment appearances in network prime time and late-night programming. In
the fourth quarter of 2007, an average hour of monitored prime-time network
programming contained eight minutes, five seconds (8:05) of in-show brand
appearances and 14:12 of network commercial messages. The combined total of
22:17 of marketing content represents 37 percent of a prime-time hour.
Unscripted reality programming had an average of 15:39 per hour of brand
appearances as compared to 4:47 per hour for scripted programs. Late night
network talk shows had an average of 14:34 per hour. The combined load of brand
appearances and network ad messages in these late night shows was exactly 30
minutes per hour—50 percent of total content time.

—By Mansha Daswani