Sochi Winter Olympics adds $600m extra ad spend in Q1
Total advertising expenditures increased by 5.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2014 to $34.9bn, Kantar Media has found, with the Winter Olympics being responsible for the growth.
Internet display expenditures grew 13 per cent, while outdoor grew by 2.8 per cent and cable TV expenditures increased 6.2 per cent.
“The Winter Olympics delivered its expected windfall in the first quarter, adding about $600m of incremental ad spending to the marketplace. But the nature of the event is that this money is narrowly distributed and doesn’t benefit all sectors of the market,” said Jon Swallen, chief research officer at Kantar Media North America.
“Subtracting the Olympics’ contribution, the growth rate for remaining expenditures was just under four per cent.”
Spending from the ten largest advertisers in the first quarter of 2014 came to $4,378.9m, with TV accounting for 80 per cent of this growth.
Kantar Media noted that six of the top ten advertisers - P&G; GM; AT&T; Comcast; Pfizer; and Berkshire Hathaway – had ‘significant’ buys in the Sochi Winter Olympics.