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