Skip to footer

McDonald's spent more than $988 million on advertising in 2013

$988 million could buy a lot of McChickens, as well as a lot of customers. Restaurant ad spending overall was up 5.2 percent last year, the highest jump of any industry.

|
Mark Lennihan/AP/File
A McDonald's marquis is illuminated in New York's Times Square. Restaurant ad spending was up 5.2 percent in 2013, and McDonald's led the spending charge.

For the third consecutive year, restaurant advertising spending increased sharply more than total U.S. ad spending (see chart). Restaurants spent $6.449 billion on measured media (TV, magazines, newspapers, Internet display ads, radio, outdoor boards and free-standing inserts), a 5.2% increase over 2012 spending, according to data from Kantar Media.

Significantly, that 5.2% is significantly greater than last year’s 2.9% increase in ad spending by the restaurant category’s largest single advertiser, McDonald’s Corp. The $988 million it spent accounted for 15.3% of total 2013 restaurant advertising dollars.

Total U.S. ad spending rose just 0.9% to $140.2 billion last year. The lack of Olympic and political spending during the year limited growth, Kantar reported. It noted that the largest 1,000 advertisers as a group are spending more while smaller companies sharply cut back spending last year.

Total ad spending during 2013’s Q4 was positive (+1.6%) during what was a very volatile year. Total ad spending declined 0.1% in Q1, jumped up 3.5% in Q2 and then fell 1.9% in Q3. Restaurant ad spending had declined 3.6% in Q3, falling farther than overall spending, before bouncing back in Q4.

Although restaurants spent roughly $17.7 million on advertising per day in 2013, the category ranked 8th among advertisers. And its 5.2% increase was not the largest. Ad spending in the telecom category was up 8.2% in 2013; the insurance category was up 8.1%. The largest decline was the 11.4% drop by direct-response companies.  Ad spending also declined (-4.1%) in the financial services category.

Among media, the largest gain in spending was in Internet display ads (15.7%) while network radio showed the largest decline (-15.9%). Spending on cable TV was up 7.3%; spending on network and spot TV was down. Newspapers continued to slide, down 3.7% for the year.

McDonald’s $988 million in 2013 advertising –or $2.7 million a day–compares with $960 million spent in 2012, according Kantar Media data. McDonald’s remains by far the category’s biggest spender. It helped increase Q4 restaurant spending with heavy lobbying for its Dollar Menu & More.

Other Q4 restaurant advertising highlights were Wendy’s backing of its Pretzel Pub Chicken and Bacon Portabella Melt on Brioche burgers; Burger King’s introduction of Satisfries and its Big King; Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s promotion of freshly baked buns for premium burgers; Jack in the Box’s tandem introductions of its Jalapeňo BBQ Burger and Fajita Ranch Melt sandwiches; and Sonic’s Island Fire Spicy Chicken line.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to McDonald's spent more than $988 million on advertising in 2013
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Bite/2014/0330/McDonald-s-spent-more-than-988-million-on-advertising-in-2013
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe