No stopping ad spending in America

An article in AdAge.com, highlighted by the Benton Foundation Compolicy service, notes a TNS Telecoms report that the amount spent on advertising in this country has risen by nearly a tenth in just the past year. The figures are as follows:

US ad spending rose 9.8% to $141.1 billion from $128.5 billion in 2003. There were gains for every medium but one. The exception: national spot radio, down 0.7% to $2.6 billion. The surging Internet showed the biggest gain, up 21.4% to $7.4 billion. Outdoor advertising had a strong 20.1% increase to $3.2 billion. In TV, national syndication had the biggest gain (15.8% to $3.9 billion), followed by cable (up 13.8% to $14.2 billion), spot TV (up 11.7% to $17.3 billion) and broadcast network TV (up 10.7% to $22.5 billion).

Nice to know the ad industry isn't hurting. The piece also points out the big-time ad spenders - the usual suspects, it must be said: "Procter & Gamble Co. continued as the top U.S. advertiser in 2004, increasing measured spending 7.4% to $2.9 billion. General Motors Corp. was No. 2, boosting measured media by 17.5% to $2.8 billion."

(Addendum:) A more complete andaccessible report is available at the Marketing Today web site. Note that the actual figures are for Jan - Sept 2004, so I'm assuming the above raw totals have been annualized for the whole of 2004.