Report: Samsung Outspent Apple in U.S. Advertising Last Year

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A woman walks by a banner advertising iPhone 5c at a subway station in Seoul, Dec. 12, 2013.

Image: Ahn Young-joon/Associated Press

By Todd Wasserman2014-04-08 13:56:06 UTC

Samsung outspent Apple by $68 million in advertising for its smartphones in the U.S. in 2012, but Apple narrowed the gap to $12 million last year, according to Kantar Media.

Overall, Samsung spent $363 million advertising its smartphones in the U.S. last year, down 10% from $401 million the previous year. Apple spent $351 million, up 5%. Out of that figure, $339 million went to TV advertising.

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No. 3 on the list was Nokia, which spent $221 million, more than 15 times the amount it spent in 2012. Motorola came in at No. 4 with $189 million. BlackBerry (No. 5) spent $90 million, more than double the previous year's figure. HTC (No. 6) spent $76 million and LG (No. 7) invested $50 million.

Spending for the top seven came to $1.3 billion, up about a third from 2012's $1 billion, the researcher found.

Kantar, which shared the findings with The Wall Street Journal , could not be reached for comment on overall spending for both brands. Nielsen, which also measures U.S. ad spending, could not be reached for immediate comment.

In 2012, Samsung spent $881 million on overall U.S. advertising, according to Advertising Age. Apple spent around $1 billion that year, according to the publication.

Horace Dediu, an analyst at Asymco, estimated that Samsung spent more than $4 billion globally in advertising in 2012 vs. around $1 billion for Apple, a figure that is at odds with Advertising Age's estimate.

Apple's share of the smartphone market was 41.3% in February, according to comScore. Samsung's share was 27%.

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Topics: Advertising, apple, Business, Marketing, samsung