Television advertising spend surges in Q3 2010 as auto industry pours dollars into marketing

Dallas ad agency LOOMIS's President Mike Sullivan shares encouraging news regarding Q3 advertising spending, as reported by Marketing Profs.

A report released January 13, 2011, "Ad Spend Rebounds 8.7%," certainly supports the recovery sentiment LOOMIS Agency clients seem to be feeling at the moment. It's difficult to get too excited about things given the stubborn jobless numbers, but at least spending on advertising as a leading indicator is looking very good.

Television advertising is leading the way with a 10.5 percent surge in year-over-year spend for Q3 2010, which is the most recent data available.

Spot TV advertising is up a whopping 27.8 percent for the period, which continues a strong trend we saw developing in Q1 of 2010.

No matter how strong advertising spending is, however, there seems to be no saving the local newspaper—down 4.4 percent.  As has been the long-term trend, newspaper has been the biggest loser in the Internet age.

Early predictions suggested that TV viewership would decline, but that has not been the case at all over the past decade.  TV viewing has actually increased to its highest monthly hourly average ever, according to the Nielsen Three Screen Report. As GoogleTV takes hold, it will be interesting to see when and media convergence begins to impact television viewership.

What does this mean?  Expect rates to tighten up for television advertising, especially as the auto industry continues pour on the ad spend as it rebounds. And, local newspapers will continue dealing.  

Overall, ad spend increases are a strong economic indicator that bodes well for 2011 for all of us. 

More rebound evidence

LOOMIS Agency clients, including Brookshire’s Grocery Stores, Dairy Queen, Cash America, Sleep Experts, Papa John’s, la Madeleine, and First United Bank, among others, all saw significant topline improvements through the end of 2010.  The positive trend is particularly encouraging, because it extends across diverse categories—from restaurant and grocery store to home furnishings and financial services.

Advertising spend data released this month shows tremendous gains in other sectors, with automobile manufacturers and dealers leading the way with spending increases of more than 20 percent. 

The rise in advertising spending is consistent with what we’ve been seeing in the CEO Confidence Index, which is the nation’s leading index of its kind.  The CEO Confidence Index showed strong gains in the second half of 2010, and rose by a point in December.  The Index indicates a 4.1 percent increase in capital expenditures over the past 24 months.

If the C-suite is bullish, that tends to impact other areas, including marketing and sales.  Even so, we’ll feel better once the sentiment shifts to such a degree that unemployment begins to show real signs of improvement.  For now, LOOMIS’s focus on behalf of our clients is to make the very most of the uptick in economic activity.  As they say, “make hay while the sun shines.”