Source: AdAge
The World’s 100 Largest Advertisers increased ad spending 3.4 percent to $267 billion in 2016. But if you want to see the real growth, check out China, which boasts four of the world’s biggest marketers.
Advertising and promotional spending by Alibaba, China’s biggest online retailer, rocketed 50 percent to $1.3 billion, the fastest growth in the top 100. Spending at internet power Tencent surged 48 percent to $1.4 billion, good for the second-highest growth. SAIC Motor, China’s largest domestic auto group, increased ad spending a more modest 4 percent, to $1.6 billion. Yili Group, the country’s largest dairy marketer, trimmed its outlay, but the quartet’s overall spending grew 20 percent anyway.
Most of the four firms’ global spending was in China, the world’s second-largest ad market. Ad spending there grew 8.7 percent in 2016 and is set to rise 7.4 percent this year, to $80.5 billion, according to a new forecast by Publicis Groupe’s Zenith.
Amazon ranks No. 11 among global advertisers with spending of $5 billion, ahead of such marketers as Ford Motor, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.
The ranking includes 10 such internet-age companies—Tencent, Alibaba and Rakuten also among them—that last year collectively boosted ad spending by 25.8 percent. Spending for the remaining 90 edged up 1.7 percent. Sixty-five of the 100 showed increases. (Not surprisingly, internet-centric marketers dominate Ad Age’s separate tally of the world’s fastest-growing ad spenders.)
Procter & Gamble kept the top spot by spending an estimated $10.5 billion on advertising and other marketing activities. South Korea’s Samsung Electronics took second with $9.9 billion in 2016 spending. Swiss food marketer Nestlé came in No. 3 with $9.2 billion in estimated “consumer facing” marketing spending. Ad Age revised spending models for this report to incorporate Samsung’s massive promotion budget and a broader definition of Nestlé consumer marketing spending.
Auto was the biggest category among the World’s Largest Advertisers, with 17 marketers spending $51 billion. Personal care and household products was close behind with 13 marketers spending $48 billion.
The top 100 includes 46 based in North America (45 in the U.S. plus the telecom firm América Móvil in Mexico), 31 in Europe and 23 in Asia.
World’s Largest Advertisers complements Ad Age’s Leading National Advertisers report; 80 of the 200 biggest U.S. spenders made the ranking of the top 100 global spenders.
Eleven of the World’s Largest Advertisers had no significant U.S. measured-media spending in 2016: automakers PSA Group and Renault (France) and SAIC (China); retailers Aeon (Japan), Alibaba (China), Carrefour (France) and Rewe Group (Germany); telecoms Telefónica (Spain) and Vodafone Group (U.K.); and China’s Tencent and Yili.
Fastest-growing spenders
The five fastest-growing ad spenders among the World’s 100 Largest Advertisers are internet-centric plays, led by China’s Alibaba.
The World’s Largest Advertisers ranking is based on Ad Age Datacenter estimates and company disclosures. It captures total ad spending, an all-in assessment including everything from TV and in-store advertising to social media and mobile. The full report is available exclusively to Ad Age Datacenter subscribers
