Google becomes major UK advertiser after boosting spend by 50% in 2013
Google spent £15 million on television advertising in 2013, £5 million on outdoor media, £4 million on cinema and £3.5 million on press, according to new data.
The 50 percent increase in advertising last year was enough to make Google the UK’s 31st biggest advertiser, rising from £30 million to £45 million, according to Nielsen Ad Dynamix, which monitors TV, print, radio, cinema, outdoor, direct mail and online display spend.
The marked increase in advertising spend resulted in Google leapfrogging food giant Mars Confectionery (£44.6m), high street bank Halifax (£44m) and Telefonica’s telecommunications giant, O2 (£41m).
Google, which celebrates its 18th year in 2014, famously eschewed traditional advertising during its formative years.
The company only began running traditional TV campaigns in the summer of 2009, to promote its web browser Chrome, a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox.
The internet giant has since steadily increased its online and off-line marketing activity around its Chrome browser and email service Gmail, ahead of a concerted push for its Chromecast dongle in 2014.
In 2013, Google’s TV activity also included a Christmas campaign promoting its Nexus 7 tablet created by Joint, and a series of ads documenting the most searched-for terms of 2013 by Adam & Eve/DDB. Media planning and buying for the campaigns was handled by OMD and Essence.
Google’s biggest year yet on advertising in the UK preceded the company reaching an all time high market capitalisation of $400 billion in February 2014, placing it behind only Apple in terms of value. – Campaign UK