A bigger quarter for ad spending

The media economy put up much better numbers during second quarter than first.

Ad spending grew 3.5 percent during the April to June period, according to data released this morning by Kantar Media, rising at a faster pace than any non-Olympic quarter since late 2010.

That was a big improvement over first quarter, when ad spending was essentially flat, down 0.1 percent.

Total second-quarter spending hit $35.8 billion. For the first half of the year, spending was up 2 percent, to $68.9 billion.

Still, Kantar cautions not to read too much into the bigger second-quarter gains. Ad spending was boosted by two flukes that won’t be duplicated in other quarters going forward.

“On one side, year ago spending was deflated by major advertisers who conserved budgets in advance of the Summer Olympics, and this makes current year growth appear larger,” notes Jon Swallen, chief research officer at Kantar Media North America.

“On the other side, there were more NBA playoff games this year, and it generated a sizable windfall of extra TV ad revenue. Without these factors, second quarter ad spend growth would have been lower by about one full percentage point.”

Basketball did indeed help fuel television to a strong quarter, with the NBA finals going seven games instead of five and ABC charging hundreds of thousands of dollars for commercial spots in those games.

Network TV was up 4.9 percent over last year. The category also benefited from the addition of the Final Four games, which took place in April. Last year those games were played in March and so counted toward the first-quarter spending totals.

Cable TV spending soared 14.9 percent, which Kantar credits to a greater number of NBA playoff games and higher primetime ad pricing at the top networks.

Spanish-language TV grew 6.1 percent, with greater spending by direct response marketers, auto manufacturers and restaurants.

Spot was the only TV category to see declines versus last year, off 3.5 percent, and that was entirely due to the lack of political inventory this year. Excluding political, spot was even to last year.

In total, TV spending was up 6.4 percent, nearly doubling the 3.3 percent growth rate from first quarter.

Outdoor saw the biggest second-quarter spending gains of any media category, up 7.4 percent. Restaurants, local retail and local service businesses spent heavily, and Kantar says the category has benefitted from increasing digital options.

Internet display was up 4.1 percent. Kantar does not track video or mobile formats, which are the two fastest-growing subcategories of online, but it noted that financial services and telecom were big display spenders.

Magazines improved by 1.9 percent, but Kantar notes that ad pages were off.

Radio and newspapers were both down for the quarter. Local newspapers were off by 4.3 percent, which Kantar attributes to lower budgets from auto dealers, financial services and retailers.

And while national radio was strong, with telecom, restaurants and retail strong, local continued to struggle, falling 1.6 percent.

Tags: 2013 ad spending, ad spending, kantar, kantar media, media economy, second quarter ad spending