Move over P&G, there’s a new addition to the World’s Largest Advertisers 2018 list! According to Ad Age, Samsung has overthrown P&G from the throne of being the ‘World’s Biggest Advertiser’.
The tech giant started to spend more money, reportedly, after the backlash and negative responses it started to receive the following the highly criticized recall of the Galaxy Note 7 due to exploding batteries.
The new rankings report states that P&G is still the world’s largest spender on a narrower definition of advertising.
P&G reported $7.1 billion in advertising costs in the year ended June 2018, including TV, print, radio, internet and in-store ads.
Samsung’s reported advertising expenses, excluding its massive sales promotion budget, came in at $4.8 billion in 2017.
Total ad spending for the Ad Age World’s 100 Largest Advertisers rose 4.9 percent to $279 billion in 2017, with spending increases at 68 companies. The ranking includes a roster of global brand marketers from Samsung to Mazda Motor Corp. (No. 100 on the list at $1.1 billion).
The list also includes internet-age companies- Netflix, Alibaba, Alphabet, Amazon, and others which have increased the amount of money they spend globally by 26.6%.
Ad Age World’s Five Largest Advertisers
| Rank | Marketer | Headquarters | Category | 2017 Total Worldwide Advertising Spending |
| 1 | Samsung Electronics Co. | South Korea | Technology | $11.2B |
| 2 | Procter & Gamble Co. | U.S. | Personal care | 10.5B |
| 3 | L’Oréal | France | Personal care | 8.6B |
| 4 | Unilever | U.K./Netherlands | Personal care | 8.5B |
| 5 | Nestlé | Switzerland | Food and beverages | 7.2B |
| Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers: Top five | $46.1B | |||
| Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers: Top 100 | $279.0B | |||
Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers: Fastest-Growing Spenders
Chinese online retailer Alibaba more than doubled advertising and promotion spending in 2017.
| Rank | Marketer | Headquarters | Category | 2017 total worldwide advertising spending | Percent change vs. 2016 |
| 1 | Alibaba Group Holding | China | Retail | $2.7B | 105% |
| 2 | Tencent Holdings | China | Entertainment and media | 2.0B | 46 |
| 3 | Viacom | U.S. | Entertainment and media | 1.3B | 35 |
| 4 | Kering | France | Apparel | 1.4B | 34 |
| 5 | Alphabet (Google) | U.S. | Entertainment and media | 5.1B | 32 |
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Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers by Category
Fourteen personal care and household products marketers in 2017 accounted for about $52 billion or nearly one-fifth of ad spending for Ad Age World’s 100 Largest Advertisers. Sixteen automakers made the top 100 ranking with spending of $47 billion.
| Category | Number of marketers | 2017 total worldwide advertising spending | Share of top 100’s spending |
| Personal care and household products | 14 | $51.6B | 18.5% |
| Automotive | 16 | 47.1B | 16.9 |
| Entertainment and media | 11 | 29.8B | 10.7 |
| Retail | 14 | 26.7B | 9.6 |
| Food and beverages | 7 | 20.9B | 7.5 |
| Technology | 6 | 18.9B | 6.8 |
| Beer, wine and liquor | 6 | 17.8B | 6.4 |
| Telecommunications | 7 | 17.3B | 6.2 |
| Financial services | 6 | 13.2B | 4.7 |
| Apparel | 4 | 12.7B | 4.5 |
| Pharmaceuticals | 4 | 8.1B | 2.9 |
| Travel | 2 | 7.8B | 2.8 |
| Restaurants | 3 | 7.1B | 2.6 |
| Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers: Top 100 | 100 | $279.0B | 100.0% |
About Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2018
Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2018 is the 32nd annual global report produced by Ad Age Datacenter.
The complete report is online.
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