Decline in Ad Spending Quickens Pace at 9.2%

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124148609257185819.html

In a sign that marketers have begun to deepen their cutbacks, TNS Media Intelligence, an ad-tracking firm owned by WPP PLC, reported Monday that ad spending in the fourth quarter fell 9.2% from a year earlier.
The fourth-quarter decline was more than twice as steep as the 4.1% drop for 2008 as a whole, when ad spending totaled $141.7 billion.
Preliminary data indicate that spending is continuing to shrink sharply this year, TNS said.
Auto advertisers, the biggest category of ad spenders in the U.S., cut their ad spending by $2.3 billion, or 15%, last year to $12.8 billion amid a slump in global auto sales. Dealers slashed spending more aggressively than manufacturers, and the reductions accelerated in the fourth quarter.
The nation's largest advertiser, Procter & Gamble Co., cut spending 7% in 2008 to $3.2 billion. P&G declined to comment on the TNS figure. "We are going to continue to focus on supporting our brands appropriately with a marketing mix," said Martha Depenbrock, a P&G spokeswoman. "Our objective is to maintain or increase our media weight, but at lower costs."
Other significant reductions came from the telecommunications sector and direct-response and miscellaneous retail categories, which doesn't include department stores or home-furnishing and appliance stores.
Despite turmoil in the financial-services industry, its ad spending remained relatively steady at $9.6 billion in 2008, down just 0.3% from 2007, as stronger spending by banks balanced cuts by credit-card companies and consumer lenders.
Registering a significant increase in ad spending were restaurants, which were spurred on by increased competition, and the food-and-candy category, as manufactures attempted to protect their brands against competition from generic and private-label rivals.