• by Wayne Friedman , December 17, 2012

Following earlier similar U.S. advertising reports, Kantar Media said total advertising spending grew strongly in the third quarter of 2012 -- due to heavy political and Summer Olympics expenditures.

Kantar says some $1.8 billion from these two spending areas helped the period pull in $34.5 billion, with the total spending for the first nine months of the year now up 3.8% to $101.3 billion.

The biggest gains were to TV. Network TV spending climbed 29.9%, and the London Olympics Games added $1 billion of incremental money. Spot TV spending also spiked up 19.8%. 

Spanish-language TV budgets gained 17.8%, also as a result of political advertising with spending on local TV stations. Kantar says syndication TV expenditures were up 9.3% from big gains on consumer package goods, insurance and restaurant advertising. 

Cable TV had weaker results -- climbing 2.9%, mostly from TV dollars going to TV stations with Olympic coverage. Internet display advertising was even lower, dropping 4.3%. Kantar says these results suffered from poorly performing mid-size Web sites.

Radio, like TV, had strong results. Network radio was up 26.3% and national spot radio climbed 9.4% higher. Political advertising also did well here.

Print media continued its downward trend -- national newspapers down 17.2% and consumer magazines off 3.2% (from weaker pharmaceutical and direct-response marketer spending). Only local newspapers made it into positive territory -- up 0.8% -- albeit from an extra Sunday in the reporting period. 

Freestanding inserts climbed 17.3%, also helped by a longer reporting period. Outdoor media was up 4.9%.

Jon Swallen, chief research officer at Kantar Media North America, said in a release: “Looking beyond these special events and focusing on indicators of core health, our data show that more than 60 percent of the Top 1000 advertisers increased their budgets year-over-year. This proportion has been stable for several quarters and indicates marketers are holding the course.”

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