Apple Closes US Ad-Spending Gap With Samsung

Samsung is the still the king of the US smartphone marketing race, but the Korean giant’s rivals closed its huge lead with an advertising blitz in 2013.

All told, seven of the top US smartphone makers spent a tad over $1.3 billion in 2013 on ads across TV, print, online, radio and outdoor venues, up 33% from 2012 spending of about $1 billion, according to ad research and consulting firm Kantar Media. Spending in the telecom category as a whole grew more than 8%, about nine times faster than the total US ad market that grew 0.9%, said Kantar Media chief research officer Jon Swallen.

The numbers reflect the rising intensity of the smartphone race and highlight the growing role that device makers play in wireless marketing as carriers focus their advertising on service plans or network quality instead of devices, as they did in the past. Samsung outspent Apple by $68 million in 2012, but the iPhone maker responded with a TV-led counter-attack and closed the ad spending gap to just $12 million as Samsung dialed back its outlays.