Ad Age Datacenter produced the 67th annual Ad Age Leading National Advertisers report. Ad Age published the full report at AdAge.com/lna2022 on June 27, 2022. Key rankings, stats and analysis are available at AdAge.com/LNA2022topline. A summary of the report appeared in Ad Age's June 27, 2022, print edition.

Ad Age Datacenter subscribers have exclusive access to the complete report at AdAge.com/lna2022. Exclusive online content includes:

• Ad Age Marketer Trees 2022, a database with ad spending, brands, profiles, executives and agency rosters for the nation’s 100 biggest advertisers    
• Expanded tables, downloadable in Excel. Tables include 200 Leading National Advertisers, 200 most-advertised brands, biggest ad spenders by medium and biggest ad spending categories

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About Ad Age Marketer Trees 2022

Ad Age Datacenter produced Ad Age Marketer Trees 2022 as a database with ad spending, brands, profiles, executives and agency rosters for the 100 biggest U.S. advertisers. Ad Age Datacenter contacted advertisers and their agencies in May and June 2022 to confirm and update information on executives and agency assignments.

Update us on agencies and executives, and report database errors:
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About the ranking

The Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2022 report ranks marketers by total U.S. advertising spending as estimated by Ad Age Datacenter.

Total U.S. ad spending estimates come from a top-down analysis of a company's spending on advertising based on disclosures in financial filings, company reports and industry benchmarking. Ad Age weights a company's reported worldwide ad costs to reflect a U.S.-only percentage. Ad Age estimates spending for companies that don't publicly disclose ad spending.

Total U.S. ad spending encompasses advertising, marketing services (including promotion and direct marketing) and digital marketing (including social media).

Ad Age has based its Leading National Advertisers rankings on a broad definition of advertising and promotion since the report debuted in 1956. The first report called the ranking "a carefully considered analysis of total advertising and promotional expenditures for each of these giant advertisers."

From the report's launch through the 2016 report, Ad Age defined total U.S. ad spending as the sum of measured-media spending and unmeasured spending.

Essentially, unmeasured spending was the difference between a company's measured-media spending (from Kantar) and its total U.S. advertising and promotion costs (either reported by the company or estimated by Ad Age Datacenter).

Starting with the 2017 report (200 Leading National Advertisers 2017), Ad Age eliminated the calculation of unmeasured spending.

Total U.S. ad spending now is based on Ad Age's top-down analysis of a company's estimated spending. Total U.S. ad spending is lower in some cases than U.S. measured-media spending, which comes from Kantar's bottom-up tally of spending in measured media based on rate card, average pricing data supplied by media sellers and other factors. Major advertisers in many cases get significant discounts off rate cards. Not all advertisers pay the same rate.

This report's figures for 2021 and 2020 reflect data collected and/or adjusted in 2022, so 2020 ad spending and rankings for a company and its brands may be different from the 2020 figures that appeared in the July 2021 report (LNA 2021). Ad Age Datacenter changed its ad spending model for some marketers in the June 2022 report.

Measured media

In addition to total U.S. ad spending, the Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2022 report shows measured-media spending.

Measured-media spending for this report includes ad spending in 17 media tracked by Kantar in its Ad Insights and Stradegy products. Kantar measures additional media, not included in this year’s parent company and brand totals, shown below.

More info: kantar.com/media.

Measured media include:

TV

• Broadcast network TV
• Cable TV networks
• Spanish-language network TV
• Spot TV
• Syndicated TV

Digital

• Desktop internet display 
• Internet search  (not included in LNA 2022)   

Magazine

• Business-to-business magazine
• Consumer magazine
• Local magazine
• Spanish-language magazine
• Sunday magazine

Newspaper

• Local newspaper 
• National newspaper 
• Spanish-language newspaper

Radio

• Local radio
• National spot radio
• Network radio (not included in LNA 2022)

Outdoor and cinema

• Cinema (included for aggregate U.S. measured-media spending; not included in measured-media spending for individual companies in 200 Leading National Advertisers)   
• Outdoor

Mergers and joint ventures

Brands and companies that a Leading National Advertiser had as of June 2022 bought or divested are generally treated pro forma in this report as if completed deals had occurred at the beginning of the company's previous fiscal year (2020). Media spending for those brands or units generally is folded into or removed from the company for two consecutive years (2020 and 2021).

An Ad Age Leading National Advertiser must own more than 50% of a product or unit for that product or unit's ad spending to be consolidated with the company in this report.

Ad Age treats joint ventures with 50/50 ownership as stand-alone ventures unless otherwise noted.

Brands

Ad Age Datacenter determined the 200 biggest U.S. brands—the nation's 200 most-advertised brands—by aggregating measured-media spending for all products or services that fell under that brand. For example, Ad Age combined Miller Lite, Miller Genuine Draft and Miller High Life under the Miller brand.

Staff

Ad Age Datacenter directors: Kevin Brown, Bradley Johnson
Research editor: Joy R. Lee
Research assistants: Olivia Fenty, Brian Gilbert, Dana Levi

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