The world’s 100 biggest advertisers nudged ad spending upward 2.3% in 2022, a modest boost but enough to reach a record $347 billion.
 
Spending growth was far below the 22.1% surge for the World’s Largest Advertisers in 2021, when advertising rebounded from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year’s ad growth in a way marked a return to normal, matching the 2.3% average spending growth for the 100 biggest advertisers group for the five-year period of 2015-2019, before the start of the pandemic.

Ad growth by region and category

Spending growth among the top 100 advertisers varied greatly by region and category. Worldwide ad spending for U.S.-based marketers rose 8.7% in 2022. Global spending for marketers with headquarters in Europe edged up 1.5%. Spending for Asia-based marketers dropped 11.0%.
 
Ad Age translates global spending into dollars based on average exchange rates, so spending growth for many non-U.S. marketers was depressed by the strength of the dollar. The euro, South Korean won and Japanese yen fell 10.9%, 11.1% and 15.9%, respectively, against the dollar in 2022.
 
For example, Kirin Holdings Co., a Japanese beverage and pharmaceutical marketer, increased ad and sales promotion spending by 1.8% in yen in 2022, but that translated to an approximately 14% decline in dollars.
 
Global ad spending in dollars for the top 100 increased in nine of 14 marketer categories in 2022. Aggregate spending for three travel-related marketers (Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, Uber Technologies) surged 41%, propelling the travel category to the biggest percentage increase in 2022 as travel continued to recover from 2020’s pandemic lockdown.
 
Four categories saw single-digit declines: Household products; automotive; beer, wine and liquor; and personal care. Spending for global marketers in a fifth category, food and beverages, was down slightly (-0.3%).
 
Among the 100 biggest global advertisers, 48 increased spending in 2022; 48 decreased spending; and four held their spending steady. Marketing spending at Booking Holdings (Booking.com, Priceline) jumped 58%, the highest growth among the top 100. Chinese internet services firm Tencent Holdings slashed ad and promotion spending 42%, the sharpest drop.

Ad growth since before the pandemic

While advertising growth last year was mixed, spending for the lion’s share of top global marketers has surpassed its level before the pandemic began in 2020.

Among the top 100 advertisers, 74 spent more in 2022 than they did in pre-pandemic 2019, according to Ad Age Datacenter’s analysis.
 
Global ad spending for the top 100 rose in 10 of 14 marketer categories in 2022 compared to 2019.
 
Retail has had the biggest growth from pre-pandemic levels: The ranking’s 16 retailers in aggregate boosted spending by 58% in 2022 vs. 2019, powered by e-commerce. The biggest increase among the top 100 came from Chinese e-commerce venture Alibaba Group Holding, whose ad and promotion spending soared 153% over that period.   
 
Four categories saw declines over that period: Automotive, where the top advertisers cut spending by 12%, and household products, telecommunications and apparel, where spending showed a modest decline.
 
Auto marketers have tightened spending vs. the pre-pandemic period as they grapple with supply chain disruptions (resulting in a tight supply of some popular models, and so less incentive to advertise) and the industry’s transition to electric vehicles (where Tesla, notably, has built its brand up to this point with almost no advertising).

Biggest advertisers

Amazon took the No. 1 spot in the Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers ranking for the second year in a row with $20.6 billion in 2022 worldwide ad and promotion spending, up 22%.
 
In the 28 years since Amazon opened its online bookstore, from 1995 through 2022, Amazon pumped $95 billion (3.5% of sales) into advertising and promotion to generate $2.7 trillion in net sales, according to Ad Age Datacenter. Just over half of Amazon’s ad and promotion spending and net sales came in the three-year period of 2020-2022.

L’Oréal, the French cosmetics and personal care products marketer, moved up a spot to rank second in the top 100 with 2022 ad and promotion spending of $12.7 billion, up 1.4%.
 
Alibaba dropped from No. 2 to No. 3 in Ad Age’s global ranking with ad and promotion spending of $11.2 billion, down 21%. That spending drop followed 10 consecutive years of double-digit percentage increases that propelled Alibaba’s ad and promotion spending from $147 million in 2011 to $14.2 billion in 2021, according to Ad Age Datacenter’s analysis.

What’s up (and down) with internet ventures

Amazon and Alibaba are among 17 internet-centric companies in the top 100 ranking. The internet firms collectively increased 2022 global ad spending 4.1%. The remaining 83 companies in the ranking raised spending 1.8%.
 
Nine of those internet ventures increased spending in 2022, led by Booking Holdings, Expedia and Amazon. Ad spending at Uber was flat.
 
Seven of the internet firms cut spending. Among those firms, the sharpest declines came at four Chinese ventures (Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu and JD.com), which all had double-digit spending decreases.
 
Those four Chinese internet ventures last year in aggregate cut spending 23%. The 13 internet ventures based in other countries increased spending 17% in 2022, driven by a 20% gain for the ranking’s 10 U.S.-based internet firms.

Ad spending in 2023

The 2023 tally for marketers won’t be clear until after public companies disclose full-year financial results starting in the early months of 2024. The latest quarterly reports from marketers show higher spending overall, although some companies have pulled back on marketing amid economic and business challenges.
 
Public companies often make only limited disclosures—and sometimes no disclosures—on ad and marketing spending in quarterly or other interim financial reports. But Ad Age Datacenter’s analysis of disclosures by 56 of 2022's top 100 global advertisers shows that 39, or 70%, of those companies boosted year-to-date 2023 global spending.

Biggest year-to-date increase

E-commerce venture PDD Holdings, whose sales and marketing expenses surged about 50% in renminbi in the first half vs. the same period a year earlier, has shown the largest jump so far in 2023. That increase was mainly due to higher advertising and promotion spending.

PDD formerly operated as Shanghai-based Pinduoduo Inc. The company said it generated “substantially all” of its revenue from within China in 2022. Pinduoduo Inc. this year changed its name to PDD and moved its principal executive offices to Dublin.
 
PDD in full-year 2022 increased spending on advertising and incentive programs to $7.4 billion, up about 16% in dollars and 21% in renminbi. Back in 2016, the company spent just $17 million on advertising and incentive programs. The company in September 2022 launched Temu, a Boston-based online marketplace that made a splash with an ad on this year’s Super Bowl.
 
Other marketers with strong spending growth during 2023 include Hyundai Motor Co., which increased first-half ad and sales promotion spending 23% in won, roughly in line with net sales growth; JPMorgan Chase & Co., which raised marketing spending 17% in the first nine months; and Colgate-Palmolive Co., which increased ad spending 17% in the first half. 

Companies that have trimmed spending

Marketers that have reduced ad spending so far this year include Warner Bros. Discovery, which touted its “more efficient marketing-related spend” in the first six months; Samsung Electronics Co., which cut advertising and sales promotion spending 12% in won in the first half; and Facebook parent Meta Platforms, which trimmed sales and marketing expenses 10% in the first six months.

Top 100 by headquarters location

The Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers ranking includes a roster of marketers from Amazon to two marketers tied at No. 99, eBay and Intel Corp.
 
The ranking includes 51 U.S.-based firms that accounted for about 51% of the top 100’s worldwide spending.
 
The ranking’s six China-based marketers—internet firms Alibaba, Baidu, JD.com and Tencent, food and beverage marketer Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co. and auto marketer SAIC Motor Corp.—in aggregate cut spending in dollars by about 20% in 2022. That’s a turnabout from the year-ago ranking, where Chinese marketers led the way with a 50% spending increase in 2021.
 
The drop in spending by China-based marketers in 2022 came as China’s economy last year slumped to its lowest growth since 1976 (excluding the outlier pandemic year of 2020).
 
Five of the Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers had no significant U.S. measured-media spending in 2022: China’s Baidu, JD.com, SAIC and Yili; and German retailer Rewe Group.
 
The Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers ranking complements the Ad Age Leading National Advertisers report; 85 of last year’s 200 biggest spenders in the U.S. (and 67 of the 100 biggest  spenders in the U.S.) made the ranking of the world’s top 100 spenders.

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