Advertising Age

Take a look at the top 10 companies on the list and you’ll see what I mean.

• Procter & Gamble = $9.4 billion in 2007 (up 11.2% from 2006)
• Unilever = $5.3 billion in 2007 (up 16.7% from 2006)
• L’Oreal = $4.3 billion in 2007 (up 12.0% in 2006)
• General Motors = $3.4 billion in 2007 (down 0.9% from 2006)
• Toyota = $3.2 billion in 2007 (up 2.3% from 2006)
• Ford = $3.0 billion in 2007 (ip 4.4% from 2006)
• Johnson & Johnson = $2.4 billion in 2007 (up 7.7% from 2006)
• Nestle = $2.2 billion in 2007 (up 6.6% from 2006)
• Coca-Cola = $2.2 billion in 2007 (up 14.0% from 2006)
• Honda = $2.0 billion in 2007 (up 4.6% from 2006)

Procter & Gamble spent almost double what the next biggest spender, Unilever, spent on advertising in 2007.  That’s a big gap.  Interesting.

I also thought it was interesting that four of the top 10 companies on the list are auto manufacturers, but I suppose that’s a different story entirely.  I’ll save that topic for another post on another day.

The breakdown of ad spending among the top 100 global marketers by industry is also interesting:

• Automotive (18 advertisers) = $23.7 billion in 2007 (up 4.6% from 2006), representing 22% of total
• Personal care (11 advertisers) = $23.4 billion in 2007 (up 13.9% from 2006), representing 21.8% of total
• Food (10 advertisers) = $11.0 billion in 2006 (up 14.1% from 2006), representing 10.2% of total
• Entertainment and Media (7 advertisers) = $9.7 billion in 2007 (down 2.0% from 2006), representing 9.0% of total
• Drugs (12 advertisers) = $9.4 billion in 2006 (up 7.6% from 2006), representing 8.8% of total)
• Computers and Electronics (9 advertisers) = $5.8 billion in 2007 (down 4.7% from 2006), representing 5.4% of total
• Retail (9 advertisers) = $5.0 billion in 2007 (up 16.9% from 2006), representing 4.7% of total
• Restaurants (4 advertisers) = $3.8 billion in 2007 (up 6.4% from 2006), representing 3.5% of total
• Soft drinks (2 advertisers) = $3.7 billion in 2007 (up 6.8% from 2006), representing 3.5% of total
• Cleaners (3 advertisers) = $3.3 billion in 2007 (up 20.5% from 2006), representing 3.1% of total
• Financial (6 advertisers) = $3.2 billion in 2007 (up 1.1% from 2006), representing 3.0% of total
• Telephone (4 advertisers_ = $3.0 billion in 2007 (up 16.9% from 2006), representing 2.7% of total
• Beer, Wine and Liquor (3 advertisers) = $1.6 billion in 2007 (up 6.3% from 2006), representing 1.5% of total
• Toys (2 advertisers) = $1.0 billion in 2007 (up 24.0% from 2006), representing 0.9% of total

These breakdowns give such a great perspective on where ad spending is coming from these days.  The report also breaks down ad spending by region and country.  It’s a great read.  What do you think of the findings?

Image: Flickr