Smaller Advertisers Causing The Ad Market To Drop

Joe Mandese wrote an interesting piece for Media Post today, highlighting a new study that has shown smaller advertisers, normally spendng in the long tail, are the ones who have put the brakes on spending recently.

"If you go back one or two years, when we were seeing modest growth of 2% or 3% in ad spending, the grow was coming from the bottom of the market. Those smaller, long-tail advertisers were in the forefront of the advance. Now they are leading the retreat," explains Jon Swallen, senior vice president-research and the de facto chief economist at TNS Media Intelligence.

Mandese also provides some interesting insights into the spending habits of the big three automakers, which makes you raise an eye to the current bailout happenings.

While some big advertisers have also hit the breaks, especially two of the Big 3 domestic auto marketers - Chrysler and Ford, both down 33% year-to-date - one has actually been boosting its advertising budget in defiance of an economic downturn: General Motors.

Through the first nine months of 2008, GM boosted its advertising budget nearly 16%, more than any other top 10 marketer, a move that could raise some interesting questions on both Main Street and Capital Hill as the Big 3 automakers have called on Congress fro a multibillion bailout to stay in business.

Here's a look at the modest cutbacks that have been made by some of the biggest advertisers: