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It’s no surprise in a bad economy that the first thing to get cut by companies is advertising.

Mad Men of Advertising

Overall, advertising expenditures in the USA dropped by 15% in the first half of 2009 compared to that of 2008.  That translates to $10 billion less in the overall advertising market for the first half of the year.

Even internet advertising was down, although by a modest 1%.  Cable TV advertising was the only medium to show growth.

The auto industry is the largest contributor to American advertising dollars and we all know the pain it is feeling in this economic downturn.  Auto advertising was down 31% and radio felt its pain the most by losing almost half of its dollars from the previous year.  Given radio’s decline, it is important that radio stations find non-traditional revenue for radio stations.  Despite its downturn, autos spent $3.7 billion and is still the largest advertising category in the USA.

But, it’s not all doom and gloom in every advertising vertical category.  Some categories that showed growth were mobile phones (+104%),  cable TV (+62%), and web sites (+47%).

(Source – Nielsen)