The answer maybe in the Yes... Companies that spend the most on advertising. #32: 2012

A few weeks ago, I blogged about companies that don’t advertise, so of course I had to explore who are the big advertisers. Below are the top corporate advertisers in North America…

►Procter & Gamble, also known as “P & G,” spent the most money on advertising in the United States in 2009 $4.18 billion. They are the parent company for brands like Gillette, Olay, Cover Girl, Pantene and Tide. You have likely seen their advertisements everywhere!

►Communications companies like:

• Verizon a telecommunications company that provides wireless services. In 2010 they spent: $1.11 billion on TV, $87 million on magazine advertising, $291 million on newspaper advertising and $169 million on internet advertising
• AT&T is Verizon’s biggest competitor and in 2009 they spent  $2.7 billion on advertising.

►Automotive companies like:

• GM, the second largest car manufacturer in the world in 2009, spent $2.2 billion on advertising — $923 million on Chevy alone.
• Ford spends 15% of its marketing budget on digital advertising (direct mail, video on demand, mobile-phone ads and internet marketing). I find this amazing and a window into the future for us all.

►Pfizer, the largest pharmaceutical company in the world spent nearly $2 billion on advertising in 2009. They manufacture drugs like Lipitor, Viagra and Chantix.  The Lipitor advertising budget alone was $247 million.

►Johnson & Johnson is a huge conglomerate including products such as: Neutrogena, Tylenol and Aveeno. They spent $2.06 billion on advertising in 2009, and even more in 2010 and 2011.

►Walt Disney Co. the entertainment and media conglomerate (whom owns Walt Disney Pictures, Disney Video, ESPN and ABC) spent $2 billion on advertising in 2009. The continually increase their advertising budget.

►Time Warner Co., a media company that includes brands like Warner Brothers Movies, Time Warner Video, HBO and Sports Illustrated spent $1.8 billion on advertising in 2009. Which breaks down to: $699 million on TV advertising , $260 on magazine advertising  million, $97 million on newspaper ads, $63 million on Internet advertising and the remaining  $925 million on a variety of other advertising vehicles.

Aside from being interesting, what does this have to do with libraries?

I think for the library marketers and administrators in our midst, it reminds us of the need:
► to continually tell our story
►as budget time approaches, for public libraries in Ontario, it takes money to keep us in the public “front of mind” and in tough times this is not the time to stop telling the story
►and it takes good, strategic planning to roll out a successful year of library advertising.

 The Guelph Public Library spent $8,000 on advertising (print and digital media) in 2012 and is planning to spend $10,200 in 2013 with the expansion coming in the digital marketing area. This is significantly less than many other public libraries of a similar size, but it is a start and recognition that we must tell the library story again and again if we are to remain relevant in the lives of our customers.

Have a great week.

Kitty Pope                                                                #32 September 2012 kpope@library.guelph.on.ca