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Advertising, love it or hate it seems to work, but just how much money does it cost to get your point across? The exact marketing budget of the big tech companies has typically been difficult to track down, but the folks over at Businessinsider.com claim to have the inside scoop. Based on numbers collected from Kantar Media we now know what each company spent in 2009 across all advertising mediums, and some of the results might just surprise you.
Ebay for example had a pretty modest budget in 2009 of only 89 million, but had the highest percentage by far when compared to the amount of revenue they generate. This either means that the ads aren't working, or the business itself is on the decline. Not surprisingly Apple seems to get excellent mileage with an ad budget of only $249 million, a number that pails in comparison to the whopping $518 million spent by Microsoft.
The rest of the results are pretty straightforward except for Google, who only spent approximately 11 million in 2009 on traditional advertising. That number might sound a bit low, but when you consider that almost all online ads are served by the search giant anyway, what's the point of rolling a TV commercial right?
It would seem that Jerry Seinfeld was no match for Justin Long when it came to ad spending efficiency, but even the most hardcore PC enthusiast can usually agree that the Microsoft's ad agency should probably be sacked.
Anyone surprised by the numbers?
Comments are closed on this article
NeilKirchoff
April 07, 2011 at 6:24am
Not surprised at all that Google spent just 11 mil dollars. Google is the most used search engine in the world they do not need any advertising. On the other hand it is hard to compare Microsoft and Apple with the others. They have new stuff to promote every semester and so the money spent on advertising is understandable. I really think it would be easier if they've used a publisher network.
festiva_man
May 09, 2010 at 11:04pm
Apple spends that much on ads. Hell I figured with the cultist followers in the media, they hardly ever had to advertise....I wonder if it takes into account the 360 dept at MS advertising as well?
Danthrax66
May 09, 2010 at 1:32pm
Didn't microsoft have a campaign where they actually bought people pc's if they found one they liked better than macs and then used that as commercials? Yeah that probably contributed a bit to the cost for advertising. Oh and last time I checked Windows 7 sold exceptionally well so all in all it was worth it for them at least.
Live, Learn, and Shut the Fuck Up.
Donkey Fingers
May 09, 2010 at 2:00pm
Dude, they all spend less than 1% of their revenue on advertizing!!!!??? That's a real shock to me. As a small business owner I can spend 25% of my revenue on advertizing, easy. More sometimes. This isn't uncommon either. So pretty much this means that they spend such a miniscule amount of their money on advertizing, it basically doesn't even matter. Drop in the bucket, as it were. Incredible.
