Nielsen: Ad Spending Down 2.6% in 2008

The Nielsen Company reported today that U.S. advertising for the full year 2008 was down 2.6% compared to the full year 2007. According to preliminary figures from Nielsen, U.S. ad expenditures declined almost $3.7 billion to a total spend of $136.8 billion in 2008.

Of the 19 media segments reported by Monitor-Plus, Hispanic Cable TV (+9.6%) and Cable TV (+7.8%) were the only two media to show ad growth in 2008. Cable was the highest revenue-generating medium with $26.6 billion in sales.

Even the Internet (display ads), typically the fastest-growing medium, took a hit, down 6.4% last year.

Newspapers suffered the most. National newspapers were down 9.6%. Local newspapers dropped 10.2% and local Sunday supplements had the biggest drop, down 11%.

Procter & Gamble was the nation's top ad spender last year, but like all the top 10 advertisers, P&G drastically cut its budget. The packaged goods company spent 19.3% less in 2008.

Despite the declines, television continued to be the dominant medium for advertisers, with 60% of all ad dollars spent on Network, Cable, Hispanic, or Spot TV.