The 200 biggest U.S. advertisers increased their ad spend by 8.0% in 2022 to a record $210 billion, according to the Leading National Advertisers report from Ad Age. Last year’s growth was more tempered than the 2021 surge, when marketers ratcheted up their spending by 19.7% as the ad market roared back from the shutdowns of the 2020 pandemic. Still, last year’s spending growth represented the third-highest percentage gain for the Leading National Advertisers in the past 15 years, Ad Age says, second only to the explosive growth of 2021 and 2010 (following the Great Recession of 2007-2009).
Ad Age reports 133 of the 200 largest advertisers, and 65 of the top 100, increased their marketing spend last year.
Amazon topped the big spenders list for a fourth straight year, with an estimated $13.5 billion in spending. That’s more than the combined total of Comcast and Procter & Gamble, the second- and third-largest advertisers.
Of the top 10 largest advertisers, all but one – Warner Bros. Discovery made the top ten in 2021. The company, which Ad Age says slashed spending 31% in 2022 compared to its pre-merger allocation in 2021, fell to No. 19 in 2022 from No. 7 one year earlier, based on the estimated combined spending for WarnerMedia and Discovery, which merged in April 2022.
Capital One, meanwhile, debuted in the top ten as its marketing spend shot up 40% to $3.8 billion. Ad Age says that far exceeds its pre-pandemic spending.
The report points to Best Buy as personifying the evolution of the Leading National Advertisers to a digital-centric marketing position. “TV and print once ruled, but digital media in 2022 grabbed the lion's share of budgets for blue-chip marketers,” it says. And while the report shows “solid growth for advertising,” it was driven mostly by gains at internet companies. Businesses either born on the internet (Alphabet, Amazon, Expedia), or focused on internet ventures (Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International) occupied 32 positions in the top 200. These 32 internet-centric companies spent 18.8% more on marketing in 2022, compared to a gain of 5.6% for the remaining 168 companies.
P&G, Comcast Top Radio Spenders
The Ad Age list of radio’s top advertisers of 2022 is largely the same as one published by Inside Radio in early June. Both used data by advertising intelligence firm Vivvix with Ad Age going ten positions deep compared to six for Inside Radio. Procter & Gamble topped both lists with around $235 million spent on radio, followed by Comcast Corp. ($206 million). P&G and Comcast Corp. were the only two companies to each invest more than $200 million on radio last year.
Pfizer was radio’s third largest advertiser. While Inside Radio’s list had Pfizer at $122 million, Ad Age pegged it at $126 million. Either way, the pharma giant is radio’s fastest growing major advertiser. Pfizer more than doubled its radio spending in one year, from $59.3 million in 2021. The U.S. Government and Deutsche Telekom, the German telecommunications giant which owns a majority share in U.S.-based wireless provider T-Mobile, were tied for fourth with each investing $101 million on radio in 2022.
From there Ad Age lists Recruit Holdings, owner of online recruitment service Indeed, as sixth ($89 million), followed by Berkshire Hathaway, home to insurance carrier GEICO, in seventh ($86 million), iHeartMedia ($83 million, presumably the value of promos it airs on its own radio stations), Progressive Corp (ninth at $74 million) and Walt Disney (tenth, $72 million).
All in, radio’s top 10 advertisers invested $1.2 billion in the medium in 2022. That was ahead of the top 10 total for magazines and outdoor but trailed paid search ($10.4 billion), paid social media ($4.4 billion), cable TV ($4.0 billion), broadcast network TV ($3.7 billion), mobile web video ($2.7 billion), ad-supported video on demand ($1.9 billion), mobile web ($1.5 billion), mobile app ($1.5 billion), and desktop internet display ($1.5 billion).
The Ad Age Leading National Advertisers report ranks the 200 biggest U.S. advertisers, 200 most-advertised brands, top advertisers by medium and market leaders by category.