Ad spend increases 3.5 percent in second quarter

Kantar Media announced last Sept. 9 that total ad spend in the second quarter of this year jumped 3.5 percent over the same period last year for a total outlay of $35.8 billion. Total advertising investment in the first six months of this year increased by 2 percent.Jon Swallen, chief research officer at Kantar Media North America, said that “ad spend has now increased for six consecutive quarters and in reaching 3.5% growth for Q2, had its best performance in a non-Olympic period since the end of 2010.” He went on to say that “on one side, year-ago spending was deflated by major advertisers who [in Q2 2012] conserved budgets in advance of the Summer Olympics…and this makes current year growth appear larger. On the other side, there were more NBA playoff games this year, and it generated a sizable windfall of extra TV ad revenue”.Ads on the Internet climbed 4.1 percent during the same period. Total spend, not including on video or mobile ad formats, got a hike from financial services and telecom advertisers. For its part, advertising investment related to travel and tourism increased in the summer vacation season.Consumer magazines had a hike in ad spend of 1.9 percent, while Sunday magazine supplements followed a similar pattern, with an increase of 4.1 percent. Advertising expenditures in newspapers plummeted 4.3 percent.