TNS Media Intelligence reports U.S. Advertising expenditures declined 14.2% in the first quarter of 2009.
From the TNS report:
Local media suffered most with aggregate expenditures sinking 25.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009. The rate of decline was similar across Spot TV (-27.5 percent), Local Newspapers (-25.1 percent) and Local Radio (-26.8 percent). Each of these segments was ravaged by deep spending cutbacks in core categories such as automotive, retail and local services.
For national media, combined ad spending fell 8.5 percent versus a year ago. Within this segment, performance was sharply defined along the lines of print versus television versus online.
National Newspapers (-28.5 percent), B-to-B Magazines (-25.5 percent), Consumer Magazines (-19.2 percent) and other print media were clustered on one track and their revenue declines were driven by fewer ad pages.
Network TV (-4.2 percent), Cable TV (-2.7 percent) and Syndication (+0.2 percent) occupied a middle tier and each of these saw business improve slightly at the end of the quarter, paced by Motion Picture and Restaurant category spending. At an exclusive upper level, Internet display expenditures grew 8.2 percent as telecom, travel and local retail advertisers expanded their online marketing programs.
Q1 2009 Measured Ad Spending
In addition to the increase in online display advertising expenditures, Dean DeBiase, CEO, TNS Media has alos identified several other noteworthy advertising industry trends:
“…some sectors and brands are approaching a depressed marketplace as an opportunity to gain share and are increasing spending accordingly.
The advertising industry, too, while struggling, is understanding this is a period for innovation and we are seeing efforts to reboot their approach through the advent of new technologies and tools such as addressable advertising, and the first steps to integrating ad measurement in a synergistic manner across all media platforms.”
Marketers who have been through the peaks and troughs of economic cycles before surely share DeBiase’s perspectve and thus have been busy taking market share through improved advertising measurement technologies and the return on investment these tools can produce.
Search Marketing Communications 
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