Cincinnati-based P&G spent $2.85 billion last year, down from $3.53 billion in 2007, Nielsen reported. Despite the decline, P&G was still the nation's top advertiser, ahead of General Motors, whose spending fell 14.9 percent, and AT&T, whose ad spending fell 7.2 percent.
But P&G's budget-cutting - it spent $683 million less on advertising in 2008, Nielsen found - has trickled down to the many small- and mid-sized agencies in Greater Cincinnati that work on P&G-related projects. "P&G is tightening its belt and asking for greater efficiencies," said Jack Streitmarter, president of Cincinnati-based audio and digital agency Sound Images.
