Last week (July 17), Advertising Age <adage.com> published its annual list of U.S. "megabrands" as defined by total measured advertising expenditures in 2005 (see Note 1, click on link at bottom). The top six, and eight of the top 10 were phone or car brands.

1. Verizon >>> $1.7 billion
2. Cingular >>> $1.3 billion
3. Sprint >>> $1.0 billion
4. Ford >>> $980 million
5. Chevrolet >>> $880 million
6. Nissan >>> $810 million
7. Dell >>> $780 million
8. Toyota >>> $770 million
9. McDonald's >>> $740 million
10. Honda >>> $640 million

Financial megabrands
The biggest financial brands were American Express and Citi, tied at number 14 with $590 million in 2005 advertising. Seventeen other financial services brands made the top 200, including what has to be one of the biggest surprises in the top-200 list, LowerMyBills.com which spent an estimated $130 million in advertising last year, more than Time Warner, The Gap, or Johnson & Johnson.

  14.  American Express >>> $590 million
  14.  Citi >>> $590 million
  31.  Visa >>> $360 million
  35.  Capital One >>> $350 million
  36.  MasterCard >>> $340 million
  40.  State Farm >>> $320 million
  48.  Allstate >>> $290 million
  56.  Progressive >>> $250 million
  66.  TD Ameritrade >>> $220 million
  72.  Chase >>> $210 million
  72.  Bank of America >>> $210 million
  99.  Wachovia >>> $170 million
  99.  Washington Mutual >>> $170 million
113.  Fidelity >>> $150 million
122.  E*Trade >>> $140 million
134.  LowerMyBills.com >>> $130 million
146.  Schwab >>> $120 million
159.  Ameriquest >>> $110 million
177.  LendingTree >>> $100 million
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Total >>> $4,820

Industry spending
These 19 financial services megabrands spent $4.8 billion in 2005 (see Note 2, click on link at bottom). The financial services sector was the fourth largest, trailing automotive, retail, and telecom. In all, financial services account for about 10% of $49 billion in total measured advertising expenditures across 200 so-called "megabrands."

-- JB

Notes:

1. Measured media spending from TNS Media Intelligence includes spending in consumer magazines, Sunday magazines, local magazines, b2b magazines, local and national newspapers, network TV, spot TV, syndicated TV, network cable TV, network radio, national spot radio, local radio and Spanish-language magazines, newspapers, and TV. It does not include Internet spending.
2. Advertising Age's definitions of financial services are slightly different than ours, since they show industry spending of $4.4 billion while our list of the 19 financial brands amounts to $4.8 billion.