The wireless industry spent some $219.4 million in national TV advertising during the month of August, according to new data from iSpot.tv, which operates a real-time TV ad measurement platform. FierceWireless has partnered with iSpot.tv to track the wireless industry’s TV ad spending.
For the third month in a row, T-Mobile outspent other wireless carriers on TV advertising in August, accounting for 22% of wireless industry national TV ad spend, according to the data.
Here’s how the top brands allocated their national TV advertising budgets in August:
T-Mobile spent $48.6 million on 23 commercial spots that ran over 10,000 times during the month. T-Mobile focused its advertising on shows like “America’s Got Talent”, “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “American Ninja Warrior,” and prioritized spending on networks NBC, ABC and Fox. Those commercials generated 2.7 billion TV ad impressions.
T-Mobile spent an estimated $17.1 million for its top ad, “For the Rest of Us,” featuring a song by American Authors.
Verizon spent an estimated $42.8 million on 10 spots that ran over 11,400 times, which generated 2.6 billion TV ad impressions, according to iSpot.tv’s data, representing 19.5% of carrier national TV ad spend. Verizon’s advertising spend focused on sports during the period. The carrier prioritized spending on NBC, CBS and NFL Network and focused on NFL Football, 2018 PGA Championship and PGA Tour Golf programming.
Verizon spent an estimated $13.9 million on its top ad, “Big Scoop,” featuring Thomas Middleditch
Sprint outspent AT&T on national TV advertising during the month of August according to the report, moving the carrier up to third place for August. Sprint spent $28 million on 17 spots that ran over 7,300 times in the month, accounting for 12.7% of the ad spend. Sprint’s commercials generated 1.8 billion TV ad impressions across TV shows such as “Live PD,” “American Pickers” and NFL pre-season football. According to iSpot.tv, Sprint focused its ad spending on networks ABC, Univision and NBC.
Sprint spent an estimated $6.4 million on its top ad, “Break Room.”
AT&T, on the other hand, spent estimated $26.6 million on seven spots that ran over 5,800 times during the period, accounting for 12.1% of the ad spend. AT&T targeted networks CBS, NBC and Fox, with adverts running against shows like “World of Dance,” “America’s Got Talent” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Those commercials generated nearly 1.3 billion impressions.
AT&T Wireless spent an estimated $7.8 million on its top ad, “The Ed Helms of Devices,” featuring Ed Helms
MetroPCS, meanwhile, spent an estimated $17.9 million on 10 spots that ran over 6,900 times. MetroPCS garnered 1.5 billion TV ad impressions across Fox, NBC and ABC, with focused spending on TV shows “America’s Got Talent,” “American Ninja Warrior” and “MasterChef.”
All told, there were 18 brands related to the wireless industry that spent an estimated $219.4 million on 112 commercials that aired over 67,100 times and generated 15 billion TV ad impressions during the period measured.
iSpot.tv's proprietary technology tracks TV commercials, movie trailers and show promotions across the top 111 networks in real time. The company's software constantly watches these networks, using proprietary audio and video fingerprinting algorithms to automatically identify and extract TV commercials, movie trailers and show promos. On the digital screen, the company tracks 710.2 million explicit interactions with TV ads across 101.5 million unique consumers per month. These interactions include video plays, searches and social activity. The company also analyzes online views across YouTube and iSpot.tv, searches on Google, Bing and Yahoo! and social activity on Facebook (including Facebook private) and Twitter.
iSpot.tv said it tags over 40 different dimensions of metadata, including brand, agency, actors, products, songs, moods, URLs and other pertinent data to create its results.