NEW YORK: Traditional media are coming under increasing pressure from their "unmeasured" counterparts as US marketers reduce the advertising dollars they spend on television and in print.
According to Advertising Age's annual 100 Leading National Advertisers report, marketing leaders increased measured media spend by just 0.6% last year, the smallest gain since the 2001 recession.
Measured media accounted for 58.2% of top marketers' US adspend, down from 59.6% in 2005. The rest of the spending came from unmeasured disciplines, chiefly marketing services such as direct marketing, sales promotion and digital communications (including unmeasured forms of internet media such as paid search).
The top 100 US advertisers increased adspend by a modest 3.1% in 2006 to $104.8 billion (€77.8bn; £52.4bn).
The number one advertiser is, not surprisingly, Procter & Gamble, whose estimated spend last year rose 6.8% to $4.9bn.
P&G has been at number one or two for 50 of the 52 years that Ad Age has produced the LNA list. Following its 2005 acquisition of Gillette, the consumer goods titan's 2006 estimated spend was 46% higher than that of number two, telco AT&T.
The nation's top 100 advertisers last year accounted for 41% of US measured spending; their share varies by medium. The companies accounted for 67% of network TV advertising but only 34% of measured online advertising.
Measured spending in the biggest ad category, automotive, fell 5.7% or $1.2bn, reflecting the turmoil in Detroit. Telecommunications, the number three category, rose 9.6% or $959 million. Last year's three most-advertised brands were all telecoms: AT&T/Cingular, Verizon and Sprint.
For further details please go to www.adage.com.
Data sourced from AdAge.com; additional content by WARC staff
