Ad spending up 7 percent in 2016

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The Standard Media Index estimates that US ad spending in December 2016 was virtually flat, with less than a percentage point increase over December 2015. However, for the year as a whole, ad spending in 2016 was up 6.8% over 2015.

While digital ad spending was the star performer last year, it was only up 13.3% year-over-year, and only gained 8.7% growth when the two biggest media platforms (Facebook and Google) were removed. Suprisingly, digital spending suffered in the last quarter of the year as retail and telecommunication marketers cut back and returned to more traditional mediums.

Where specifically did the retail and telco dollars go? They returned to TV which saw a 4.4% increase over the previous year thanks to Olympics and election ad spending.

For the entire year in 2016 magazine ad spending was down 9.1%, newspapers were down 13.9% and radio ad spending was virtually unchanged.

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