November Dot-com Spending Soars

Spending by dot-com companies in traditional media jumped to $671.6 million
in November, a holiday-driven outlay that tops spending for each of the
first three quarters of 1999, and brings total spending for the first
eleven months of the year to $2.5 billion.


The $671.6 million figure represents a 518 percent increase over the same
period a year before.


The numbers were issued this week by Competitive Media Reporting, which tracks
advertising information. The data reflects ad dollars spent in television,
newspapers, magazines, radio and outdoor.


Magazines and network TV drew in the most dollars, with dot-com companies
spending $155.4 million in the former, and $150.7 million in the latter.


“This industry is growing at an incredible rate,” says Jerry Arbittier,
senior vice president corporate research and analysis at CMR.


“We are seeing just how big an impact the holidays had on advertising and
we can expect that December had an even bigger contribution.”


Surprisingly, the top spender, Ameritrade, wasn’t the type of
business that tries to draw holiday buying. The company spent $18.6 million
in November of 1999. Its competitors also dropped some big bucks. E-trade spent $14 million, Datek shelled out $11 million, Fidelity.com Investing dropped $9.9
million, and Charles Schwab spent $7
million.


But the holiday shopping crowd was well represented in the CMR’s list of
top-ten spenders. K-Bkids.com came in
at number three, spending $14.4 million. Next in the toy category was Etoys, with $13.6 million in expenditures.
Another big gift destination, Amazon.com, spent $6.4 million. Toysmart.com came in at number ten,
with $6.3 million in spending for the month.


Most of those dollars made their way into magazines ads — $155.4 million
worth. Network television captured $150.7 million, while cable came in next
at $121.8. Spot TV expenditures totaled $93.4. Spot radio, national
newspapers, newspapers, syndication, network radio, and Sunday magazines
followed, in that order.

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