Kantar: Ad Spending Still Growing, But Recovery Is In Jeopardy

While most large advertising budgets have been locked in for the next few months, unless there is a miraculous and quick economic turnaround, the ad recovery that began in 2010 is looking weaker and weaker.

The latest figures from WPP Group’s Kantar Media showed that ad dollars were up a decent 3.2 percent in the first half of 2011 to $71.5 billion. But spending growth eased slightly during the second quarter and was up 2.7 percent compared to the same period last year. While display spending gains remained in the double digits, a wider slowdown would ultimately affect online ads. The big worry is that spending growth for the largest 100 advertisers stalled in Q2 and the ad market became more dependent on the comparatively smaller budgets of mid-sized advertisers as the main source of growth, said Jon Swallen, SVP Research at Kantar Media.