Marketing/Advertising 2014: Internet Advertising, Digital Media Climbs

     Advertising Age’s newly issued “Fact Pact” has been reviewed in the blog Food Politics, and the “marketing morsels” contained in that  blog entry are forwarded below.  These factoids from Ad Age reveal that the internet has now become a stronger advertising medium than newspapers (and projected usage to increase dramatically).  The ex-working journalist in me can’t get over the report that Americans spend only 18 minutes a day reading a daily newspaper.   Plus, there are no specifics as to the digital media on which Americans are spending 316 minutes a day (you do the math!).  But the fast food restaurants and the beverage brands are high ranking big spending advertisers:

§TV is still the largest advertising medium (39%) followed by the Internet (19%), newspapers (15.5%), magazines, radio and outdoor and cinema.  This is the first year that the Internet has surpassed newspapers.

§The Internet share of advertising is expected to rise to 31% by 2016.

§Americans spent 271 minutes a day watching TV in 2013 and another 316 minutes on digital media.  Total minutes with any medium: 712 (but some of this is multitasking).

§McDonald’s was the highest ranking food advertiser in 2012, meaning the company that spends the most money on “measured media,” the kind that goes through advertising agencies: $1.424 billion, of which $957 million was spent in the U.S.  This doesn’t count marketing that does not go through advertising agencies.

§The top ten fast food restaurants spent $6.1 billion on advertising, just in the U.S. in 2012.

§The top ten beverage brands spent $1.77 billion on U.S. advertising in 2012: Coca-Cola $243 million, Pepsi $274 million, Gatorade $101 million, etc.

§Nearly one in six adults watches more than 40 hours of TV a week.

§Americans spent only 18 minutes a day reading newspapers.

§The cost of a 30-second TV spot on The Simpsons is $231,532.

§The cost of a 30-second TV spot on The Biggest Loser is $91,672.

§The top 20% of Americans earned 51% of all income in 2012.

§Mean income for all households was $71,274; for the lowest 20% it was $11.490; for the highest 20% $181.905.