The growth at the local level was driven by Astra Zeneca and Laboratorios Liomont. Astra Zeneca’s activity represented only 2.53% of the spots purchased to the networks in 2007. Their impact on the local cable operator was even greater with their buys impacting the growth of Pharmaceuticals by 18% on Cablevision’s side.

Laboratorios Liomont’s on the other hand placed all of its buys directly with Cablevision, contributing 19% to the growth of this category.

What this highlights, is a trend in the Pharmaceutical Category to focus more on the local cable operator market in their advertising campaigns. In fact the number of local spots increased by over 150% in 2007 compared to a Regional increase of only 3.9%. DataCheck will monitor this trend carefully in 2008.

Telecomm Equipment Manufacturers and Carriers had a significant increase on a Pan Regional basis in 2007, however what impact did wireless have at the local cable operator level, specifically in terms of the activity on Cablevision in DF?

Service providers played an important role in driving the increase locally through their marketing campaign targeting cell phones users who want to personalize their phones by downloading videos, ring tones, games, and other options. “Esmasmovil” a division of Grupo Televisa was the leading advertiser among service providers. A key point to make here is that Esmasmovil’s presence represented most of the activity in the category and since Grupo Televisa’s owns both Esmasmovil and Cablevision, it is difficult to determine precisely how much or if they pay for ad space at all.

Telcel was another major advertiser and while they allocated some expenditures for the purchase of local spots, their focus was really on the Pan Regional market. Because of this their local expenditure did not have a major impact to the growth of this category.

The Liquor category showed a healthy 68% gain for Network regional activity from 2006 to 2007 and a tremendous 73% for Cablevision. This was accomplished even when companies such as Cerveceria Modelo decreased their budget for Cablevision by 77%. The significant trend that powered the growth was the emergence of Mexican companies that noticeably increased their exposure.

The Toys category was primarily impacted by the Games subcategory because Microsoft heavily promoted the X Box in 2007 resulting in a gain of 89%. Another key trend was that Microsoft allocated most of their advertising budget to the cable operator which resulted in a decrease in buys made directly through Networks on a regional basis.

The Automotive Category was driven by Ford with promotions geared to local markets such as their Mother’s Day campaign as well as local events used to promote Ford via cable operator campaigns showing almost an 82% increase from 2006. This represented 48% of total Automotive activity on Cablevision. FORD Motors which includes Ford, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury and Volvo reserved their advertising budgets for Network buys vs. the local Cable Operator campaigns.

The Pet category showed growth at the local level during 2007. A major reason for this was the emergence of Intelpet Mexico as a major advertiser through Cablevision. They launched their new nutritional canine product “Clever” with a major cross media campaign focused locally, which included free samples at retail, using outdoor advertising, and specialized programs that highlighted the brand. As part of this campaign our analyses shows they only made buys through Cablevision. Other companies also drove the growth of this category at the local level; Efem had a growth from 2006 to 2007 of 377%, while Nestle Purina’s growth was 29%, and Mars Inc. increased spots by 34% which resulted in a significant upside for the category. Cablevision.