U.S. Adspend Up 5.7 Percent in First Half

NEW YORK: Overall advertising revenues in the U.S. rose by 5.7 percent in the first six months of the year to reach $63.57 billion, Kantar Media reports, with television adspend up 10 percent.

“The rally in ad spending that has emerged from last year’s collapse continued at a steady pace through the second quarter, even as softening economic data on retail sales, spending and employment began to raise concerns about the outlook for consumer activity,” said Jon Swallen, senior VP of research at Kantar Media. “Early figures from the third quarter indicate the advertising expansion is still maintaining its momentum and that is an encouraging sign for the industry.”

Within the TV segment, spot TV expenditures gained 25 percent, while Spanish-language TV was up by 14.6 percent, thanks in part to the World Cub. Cable TV posted an 8.8 percent growth rate, and network TV experienced a 7.2-percent rebound.

The ten largest advertisers spent $8.35 billion, an 11.5-percent increase. Procter & Gamble remains at the top of the list, shelling out $1.5 billion, a 31.1-percent increase. News Corp. ranked as the sixth-largest advertiser, spending $700.9 million, a 5.8 percent increase, while Time Warner, in eighth place, spent $571.1 million, a 1.5-percent decrease.

Analyzing branded entertainment, Kantar found that in Q2, an average hour of monitored prime-time network programming contained nine minutes, thirty one seconds (9:31) of in-show brand appearances and 14:19 of network commercial messages. The combined total of 23:50 of marketing content represents 40 percent of a prime-time hour. Unscripted reality programming had an average of 16:39 per hour of brand appearances, as compared to just 5:16 per hour for scripted programs.