Super Bowl, Oscars, March Madness Drive U.S. To Worldwide Lead In Ad Spend
By Barry Janoff
February 26, 2015: With the Super Bowl, Oscars, Grammys, March Madness and other high profile events attracting huge TV audiences and millions of dollars in marketing, it should come as no surprise that the U.S. leads the world in per capita advertising spend.
Companies spent more than $335 million on Super Bowl XLIX commercials, due in part to a record $4.5 million charge for 30-second spots by NBC, according to Kantar Media, NY.
The total is likely to rise for the NFL's historic Super Bowl 50 next February in Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., with broadcast network CBS looking to ask upward of $5 million for 30-second spots, according to industry analysts.
Last year, brands spend $257 million during the seven-game MLB World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals on Fox, while the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four saw a spend in excess of $182 million on CBS, according to Kantar Media.
Not to be outshined, Hollywood's Academy Awards telecast pulls in some $95 million in ads on ABC, and music's Grammy Awards telecast on CBS is near the $80 million mark, also according to Kantar Media.
Advertising spend in the U.S. reached $181 billion in 2014, accounting for more than a third of the global ad market. That translates to an ad spend of $567 per person in 2014, according to the just-released Global Advertising Market Forecast Outlook from consulting and marketing intelligence firm Strategy Analytics.
Putting that $567 figure into perspective, Australia was second with an average ad spend per person of $486, followed by Norway with $472, according to Boston-based Strategy Analytics.
"Advertising spend per capita in the United States is 121 times larger than India and 16 times larger than China," Leika Kawasaki, analyst and author of Global Advertising Market Forecast Outlook, said in a statement. "China which has the second largest advertising market globally has the second lowest average spend per capita at $35 per person."
The report shows that although digital marketing is on the rise, TV continues to account for the largest share of ad dollars in the U.S. at 43%.
TV also remains a driving marketing force worldwide, where it accounts for 37% of the total global TV ad spend.
In 2014, two major global sports events were the Winter Olympics in Sochi and the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, which attracted some 2 billion and 2.6 billion total viewers worldwide, respectively. Both help marketings in countries worldwide to spend money in an attempt to woe consumers and fans.
Following the U.S., Australia and Norway, the Top Ten nation's in average ad spend per capita in 2014 are Denmark ($379), the U.K. ($362), Sweden ($361), Germany ($311), Canada ($310), Japan ($308) and Finland ($294).
Conversely, the Bottom 5 in average ad spend per capita in 2014 were Poland ($60), Mexico ($54), Turkey ($41), China ($35) and India ($5).
Other key findings from this report include:
• Australia and Japan are the only Asia Pacific countries in the Top Ten in average ad spend per capita.
• All four Nordic countries made the Top Ten average spend per capita although in terms of market size these four are in the Bottom Ten.
• Western Europe ($264) has the second largest average spend per capita, but that less than 50% of North America ($541).
• Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa combined accounted for three-quarters of the world's population but have the lowest average advertising spend per capita.
• TV ad spend per TV households in the U.S. is 46 times larger than India.
• Australia tops average digital ad spend per Internet user in 2014, but its digital advertising market accounted for less than 3% of global digital ad spend.
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