• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, September 10, 2012

U.S. ad spending growth nearly stalled in the second quarter of 2012, climbing less than 1% to $34 billion, according to a report issued today by Kantar Media. For the first half, spending was up 1.9% to $67.1 billion.

“Ad spending growth sputtered during the second quarter and was unable to sustain its early-year momentum," stated John Swallen, chief research officer at Kantar Media North America. “The advertising market is mirroring the tepid, slow growth performance of the general economy.”

Swallen projected that spending in the current quarter, which ends Sept. 30, would get a bit of a boost from the Olympics and political outlays. “But sustained long-term improvement will probably be linked to the health of consumer spending on the goods and services that marketers provide.”

Five of the top 10 advertisers spent less in the second quarter than they did during the second quarter of 2011, Kantar reported, in some cases most likely holding back money to spend on Olympics-related campaigns.

Packaged-goods giant Procter & Gamble was the biggest spender in the quarter -- although its total, $577 million, was down 13% from the same period a year ago.

Communications giant Comcast was the second-ranked advertiser, spending $470 million, up 13% from the prior year. L’Oreal was third with total expenditures of $347 million, up 9%. Rounding out the top five spenders were AT&T ($475 million; down 21%) and Verizon Communications ($327 million; down 15%).

Carmaker General Motors, ranked eighth overall among advertisers, chopped the most out of its budget, spending $292 million, or 30% less than a year ago. Kantar reported that GM’s annual rate of measured ad spending is now at its lowest level in over a decade. By comparison, 9th-ranked Toyota spent $285 million, up 23% over the same period a year ago.

Retail was the biggest ad category for the quarter with $3.8 billion in spending, up less that 1% compared to the prior year period. Automotive was second-ranked with a total of nearly $3.4 billion, up almost 8%. Local Services rounded out the top three categories with $2.3 billion in spending, up almost 2%.

By medium, TV showed the most growth in the quarter, up 4.4%, with Spanish language TV up 18%, cable TV up 4.2% and spot TV up 4.6%. Network TV was down 0.4%.

Magazine spending was down nearly 3% and newspaper spending was down just over 3%. Internet display ads were down 5.4%; radio was down nearly 2%, and outdoor was up 2.5%.

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