A second service that tracks advertising spending is reporting a relatively strong increase in the United States in the third quarter.
American ad spending climbed 7.1 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago, according to a report that is being released Monday morning by Kantar Media, part of WPP.
The report comes days after the other principal tracker of ad spending, Nielsen, reported that ad spending in the United States rose 7 percent in the third quarter compared with the third quarter of 2011.
The 7.1 percent increase is the most robust one to date for the year. The gain in the first quarter was 2.6 percent compared with the first quarter of 2011, and the gain in the second quarter was a scant 0.9 percent compared with the second quarter of 2011.
The increase in the third quarter also marks the third quarter in a row of gains in Kantar reports, after the company reported a 1 percent decline in ad spending in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared with the same period of 2010.
For the first nine months of 2012, Kantar reported, American ad spending has increased 3.8 percent compared with the first nine months of 2011. By comparison, the Nielsen report showed growth in the first nine months of 2.5 percent. (The companies use different data for their reports, which accounts for diverging numbers.)
Kantar, like Nielsen, attributed the growth in the third quarter to spending for ads related to the 2012 Summer Olympics and the November elections. Those events “delivered their expected bonanza in the third quarter,” Jon Swallen, chief research officer at Kantar Media North America, said in a statement.
Looking at the Kantar report by media categories, television, as is typical, led the way, with a 15.3 percent increase in ad spending, fueled by a 29.9 percent increase in the subcategory of network TV, because of the Olympics, and a 19.8 percent increase in the subcategory of spot TV, because of political ads.
Of the other six media categories Kantar reports on, three were on the plus side:
- Free-standing inserts, up 17.3 percent, benefiting from what Kantar described as “a 13-week quarter that had 14 Sundays, a prime day for the distribution of printed coupons”;
- Outdoor advertising, up 4.9 percent;
- Radio, up 4.2 percent.
There were three media categories with ad spending declines in the third quarter, according to Kantar:
- Internet display ads, down 4.3 percent;
- Magazines, down 2.9 percent;
- Newspapers, down 1.5 percent, fueled by a downturn of 17.2 percent in the subcategory of national newspapers.
Kantar also offers each quarter a list of the Top 10 marketers by ad spending. The leader was Procter & Gamble, which increased spending 4.7 percent compared with the same period a year ago.
The rest of the Top 10, in descending order, were:
- General Motors, which was up 24.6 percent ↑;
- Comcast, up 5.8 percent ↑;
- AT&T, down 5.8 percent ↓;
- Berkshire Hathaway, up 26.6 percent ↑;
- Verizon Communications, down 12.4 percent ↓;
- L’Oréal, up 7.7 percent ↑;
- Toyota Motor, up 41.8 percent ↑;
- News Corporation, up 14.4 percent ↑;
- General Mills, down 0.6 percent ↓.
This means that seven of the Top 10 marketers in the third quarter increased outlays for advertising compared with the same quarter a year ago. By comparison, in the first quarter, five increased spending, and in the second quarter, four increased spending.
Looking at the ad spending by type of marketers, retail was the largest category in the third quarter, Kantar reported, up 8.1 percent from the same period a year ago.
The rest of the Top 10, in descending order, were:
- Automotive, up 20.7 percent ↑;
- Local services, up 3.7 percent ↑;
- Telecommunications, up 9.9 percent ↑;
- Financial services, down 2.3 percent ↓;
- Food and candy, up 9.2 percent ↑;
- Personal-care products, up 6.2 percent ↑;
- Drect response, up 7 percent ↑;
- Restaurants, up 12.1 percent ↑;
- Insurance, down 0.1 percent ↓.