Detroit Increases Ad Expenditure in Hispanic print

July 18, 2005

During the first half of 2005, automotive advertising in Hispanic magazines increased by 24.4% to US$ 13.6 million compared to the first half of 2004 (US $10.93 million).

Carlos Pelay, president of Media Economics, the publisher of HispanicMagazineMonitor, notes that “data seems to indicate that the auto sector is actually doing better than average; overall (across all categories) ad pages are up by 6.5% and estimated ad dollars are up by 20.8%.”

According to the table below, General Motors leads the pack with ad expenditures of US$ 4.15 million, an increase of 17% compared to the same period of last year.

Company

2003

2004

2005

% Change '05

General Motors Corporation

$2,145,451

$3,545,137

$4,148,578

17%

DaimlerChrysler Corporation

$1,430,927

$1,223,300

$2,043,456

67%

Ford Motor Company

$2,932,039

$1,557,448

$1,855,681

19%

Toyota Motor Sales, USA

$1,952,509

$1,626,089

$1,675,575

3%

Hyundai Motor America

$139,251

$209,217

$907,823

334%

American Honda Motor Co.

$425,072

$481,557

$723,009

50%

Nissan North America, Inc.

$457,579

$241,525

$565,813

134%

Volvo Cars of North America, LLC

$128,441

$411,186

$329,934

-20%

BMW of North America, LLC

$7,981

$198,237

$260,967

32%

Land Rover North America

$114,725

$298,629

$251,857

-16%

Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC

$10,998

$11,330

$218,498

1828%

Saturn Corporation

$0

$232,240

$177,680

-23%

American Suzuki Motor Corporation

$0

$102,236

$173,571

70%

Volkswagen AG

$326,909

$486,100

$125,910

-74%

Mazda Motor Corporation

$169,116

$195,788

$43,895

-78%

Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America, Inc.

$69,069

$151,320

$28,726

-81%

Subaru of America, Inc.

$0

$0

$14,740

na

Audi AG

$24,985

$2,500

$10,200

308%

BMW Latin America

$51,700

$0

$0

na

Honda de Mexico

$0

$0

$0

na

Kia Motors America, Inc.

$62,875

$0

$0

na

Porsche Cars North America, Inc.

$4,000

$0

$0

na

Totals:

$10,453,627

$10,973,839

$13,555,913

24%

Source: HispanicMagazineMonitor, a service of Media Economics Group, (c) 2003-2005

Other findings of the HispanicMagazineMonitor are:

Most of the major companies are actually up strongly this year with the notable exception of Toyota, whose spending has only increased by 3% this year.
Ford is up 19% this year but is still down compared to spending in 2003. Ford was the leader in ad spending in 2003 but has slipped to third this year.
GM is - by far - the leader in this category outspending #2 DaimlerChrysler by a factor of two.
There have been sharp increases this year by Hyundai, Nissan, and Mercedes. Hyundai, especially, has increased its spending from $209k in the first half of last year to $907k this year. Most of Hyundai's spending this year has been for two brands: the Sonata ($472k) and the Elantra ($364k).

Newspapers: Car dealership driven

According to data released by TNS/Media Intelligence, during the first five months of 2005, automotive brands increased their advertising expenditure in Spanish-language newspapers by 12.1%. Car dealerships, who want to increase traffic to their stores, are the main automotive advertisers in newspapers, while corporate/brand advertising tends to invest more in national magazines. Advertising by local dealerships can be very volatile. The availability of car salesmen who speak Spanish is a determinant factor to see whether advertisers invest in print. Interestingly, (brand) advertising at the corporate level had a very high growth rate during the first five months of 2005 (Daimler Chrysler +301%, General Motors +240%). Needless to say these increases came from a very low base.

Company

Jan 2005- May 2005 (In US$)

January 2004- May 2004 (In US $)

Change

Ford (local dealerships)

2,114

1,968

7.41%

General Motors (local dealerships)

1,402

2,026

-30.82%

Daimler Chrysler (local dealerships)

1,313

1,085

20.99%

General Motors (corporate)

1,093

322

239.77%

Nissan Motor (local dealerships)

1,000

660

51.47%

Ford Motor (misc. dollars assigned)

928

369

151.52%

Honda Motor (local dealerships)

556

497

11.74%

Daimler Chrysler (corporate)

505

126

301.67%

Daimler Chrysler (misc. dollars assigned)

387

396

-2.40%

Toyota Motor (local dealerships)

367

476

-22.92%

Ford Motor (corporate)

347

264

31.37%

General Motors (misc. dollars assigned)

301

322

-6.62%

Mazda Motors (local dealerships)

249

725

-65.73%

Nissan Motor (corporate)

226

310

-27.03%

Hiunday (local dealerships)

225

428

-47.57%

Mitsubishi (misc. dollars assigned)

155

NA

Mitsubishi (local dealerships)

147

66

123.18%

Suzuki (local dealerships)

88

233

-62.07%

BMW (local dealerships)

77

24

217.43%

Fuji Heavy Industries (local dealerships)

75

8

864.10%

Total

11,553

10,306

12.10%

Source: TNS Media Intelligence