Apple Again Tops Kantar Media’s List of the 5 Biggest Spenders on New TV Ads

Advertisers spent more on placement during the 2017 Billboard Music Awards than any other programming, devoting $4.9 million, or 4.1 percent of their new creative budget on the event.

For the first week of May, Apple spent more on broadcast placement for new creative than any other advertiser, devoting around $10 million to its “The City” spot promoting the iPhone 7 Plus. Last week, Apple returned to the top of the list, devoting 62 percent of its overall broadcast budget of $12.6 million, or nearly $7.9 million, to a series of seven new ads—$6.7 million of that went to three new spots promoting the iPhone 7 Plus, including “Barbers,” a spot showing photos taken with its portrait mode attracting customers to a New Orleans barbershop. Apple also released two Apple Music spots featuring Shakira and Harry Styles and two “Designed for Everyone” brand spots promoting Apple devices.

Apple devoted 22 percent of its new creative spending to the Billboard awards, spending a total of $1.7 million on placement during the event, more than any other advertiser, for a total of two minutes of airtime. Its Apple Music ad with Shakira made its debut during the event. It also ran its iPhone 7 Plus spot and another Apple Music spot (the one with Styles), which debuted May 15.

Old Navy spent a higher percentage of its overall broadcast placement on new creative than any other advertiser, devoting 91 percent of its approximately $7 million budget, or nearly $6.4 million, to the latest in its “Hi, Fashion” campaign. The brand devoted $836,000 of its spend on placement of the 30-second “Hi, Light” ad promoting its “Summer Essentials” event during NBC’s The Voice.

The third biggest spender on new creative last week, Mercedes-Benz, spent just over $4.1 million to promote its C-Class series. That represented 62 percent of the Daimler AG brand’s overall media budget of around $6.6 million.

Mercedes just edged out the next advertiser on the list, AT&T. The telecommunications giant devoted around $4 million of its $9 million broadcast placement budget on a new version of a spot in the “Terms & Conditions” campaign it launched last month starring Mark Wahlberg. While not a new ad, that version of “Unlimited” included an iPhone 7 offer, which technically qualifies it as “new creative,” and $684,000 of AT&T’s spend for the ad was for placement during PGA Tour golf.

Lowe’s rounded out the list of the top five biggest spenders on broadcast placement on new creative at around $3.6 million. That was good for 54 percent of the hardware chain’s budget of nearly $6.7 million.