WHEN Stephen Colbert wanted to raise money for the recovery efforts after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, he worked with a behemoth technology company, Microsoft. Every time Mr. Colbert said the word “Bing” on the “Colbert Report,” the company donated $2,500 to the Colbert Nation Gulf of America Fund. That effort at brand integration raised $100,000 for the charity and increased recognition for Microsoft’s search engine.
Television advertising, whether through integrated-brand campaigns like Microsoft’s or otherwise, has been one of the bright spots as the advertising industry begins to recover from the devastating effects of the recession and marketers experiment with a variety of new ways to reach the audience.
This year is likely to bring rapid growth for spending on ads in new media, resumed growth for spending on television advertising and struggles for print media, particularly newspapers.
According to data from Kantar Media, advertising expenditures for all media for the first half of 2010 increased 5.7 percent from 2009 to about $63.6 billion. Television advertising led the pack in spending because of an increase in demand from the automotive and retail markets, and political advertising.
Spending on advertising in local newspapers showed a significant decline over the last 19 quarters, with a 4.6 percent decrease for the first half of 2010 compared with the same period in 2009, according to data from Kantar Media.
For the first time, advertisers are projected to have spent more on online ads than on newspaper ads in 2010, according to data by eMarketer.
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