Top 100 Global Marketers and Top Ad Spending Industries

Advertising Age released its annual report of the Top 100 Global Marketers last week, and the 2008 list is very interesting.  Of course, as you’d expect, the list is chock full of consumer products companies and pharmaceutical companies, but I found the amount of money spent when you compare the companies on the list to be very revealing. 

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

Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.

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