Looks like profits ain't the only thing down at the Big Three — ad spending is following the trend. For the first quarter of 2006, the only automaker of the triumvirate making a "Bold Move" has been FoMoCo — but their spot tv spend was only up to a respectful $187 million. That additional money may have been necessary for them to make that amazing Kelly Clarkson song. We kid — that extra coupla million came out of the "crappy song" line — not the "tv ad buy" line. More numbers for other automakers including a surprise showing by a certain German company after the jump:
The Big Three's cumulative ad spend dropped by 4.5%, with DCX dropping spending by 9.8% and the General cutting its spend by 5.6% to drop to $205 million in tv ad buys.
Foreign automakers on the other hand showed a marked up-swing corresponding to their similar increases in sales growing about 4% — with the Ford-owned Mazda upping its spend 96.5%, BMW up a surprising 32.9% and VDub up 26.2%. Isuzu and Mitsubishi dropped their ad buys, by 43.6% and 74.9% respectfully.
All we know is — this'll mean less and less "new hotness" Ad Watch and more and more "ol' busted — but still classic" Ad Watch for the next couple of months. But — maybe they'll up the print and net advertising. We can only hope. Remember to keep checking our Ad Watch mini-site and for you techno-nerdy folks, the RSS feed.
Auto Ad Spending Dips in 1Q [MediaWeek]
Related:
More Ad Watch [internal]