Top 200 Megabrands

According to the Advertising Age Megabrand report, advertising media placements by the nation's Top 200 megabrands throughout 2001 declined 0.8% from 2000 levels. Meanwhile, overall advertising media buys dropped 9%, making the year one of the most dismal on record.

Not since 1991 has total advertising, and that of the Top 200 as well, suffered year-to-year declines, according to the eleven media measured by Taylor Nelson Sofres' CMR. The annual Ad Age report analyses and ranks advertisers by measured U.S. ad spending in newspapers, magazines, outdoor, broadcast and cable TV and radio.

In spending $32.61 billion in media, the top 200 megabrands claimed 36.3% of total U.S. media, up from 33.3% in 2000. The AT&T megabrands led all advertisers in 2001, spending $996.6 million, an aggregate for AT&T and AT&T Wireless.

Telecom megabrand ad dollars in the Top 200 grew to $3.61 billion, up 36.8%, registering the best growth among 200 Megabrand categories. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and Cingular Wireless together hit $2.85 billion, up 44% from the previous year.

The automotive category in the Top 200 continued to be the biggest buyer of network TV, spending $2.1 billion in the medium. In fact, the Top 200 account for 57% of the nation's network TV investment.

Retail remained the second-largest 200 Megabrand category, backed by $5.33 billion. Financial services, which grew 27% in 2000, deflated in 2001. Ad outlays dropped 21.4% for the Visa megabrand, 8.5% for MasterCard and 33.4% for American Express as the travel industry felt the effects of the September terrorist attacks.

The big OTC drug megabrands pushed the Top 200 drug segment to $1.37 billion, up 23%. Growth in total dollars for 2002 will continue to rely on the ad stimulus provided by this category, the telecoms sector and the automotive segment.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.