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Outdoor, Internet, FSIs Grew Greatly in 2006

Outdoor advertising gained in popularity among advertisers in 2006, ending the year with a healthy 8.6 percent growth, up to $3.8 billion.

Advertising spending as a whole ended the year up 4.1 percent compared to 2005, but subtract the effect of cyclical events such as political spending and the Olympics and core growth is up about 3 percent, writes Mediaweek. That trend is likely to continue until the end of 2007, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
Auto advertising spending was down in 2006 by nearly $1 billion, with General Motors chopping its budget by 23.7 percent to $2.3 billion. The loss hit newspapers and consumer magazines the hardest.

On the other hand, telecommunications and pharmaceutical categories gathered steam, and that is likely to continue for at least the first half of this year, particularly with AT&T continuing its rebranding efforts as it incorporates Cingular Wireless.

Of all media, free standing inserts saw the most growth, up 25.5 percent.

Advertisers have continued to shift some of their budgets away from television and print to the internet. Online display advertising grew 17.3 percent and the medium’s share of all spending grew to 6.5 percent, up from 5.8 percent in 2005.

Newspaper share dropped to 18.7 percent from 19.9 percent, while magazines dropped to 19.9 percent from 20 percent and radio from 7.6 percent to 7.4 percent.

Spanish-language media continued to boom, with TV growing 13.9 percent and Spanish-language newspapers up 8.5 percent. Spanish-language magazines also posted the most growth of all magazine segments, up 9.7 percent.