U.S. Media Market Expands To Highest February Yet, Long-Tail Brands Outpace Top 10 Categories

• by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, Yesterday, 10:13 AM

After crashing in January, the U.S. media marketplace expanded in February, reaching the greatest volume ever for the month, according to the latest installment of the Ad Market Tracker.

The tracker, powered by Standard Media Index and published by MediaPost, measures total ad volume from major agency holding companies representing about 80% of U.S. ad volume. The index jumped 21 points to a 204 in February after plummeting to a 183 in January. The fall-off follows normal seasonal demand patterns on Madison Avenue.
 

On a year-over-year basis, the index rose 18 points over February 2015.
 

Much of the expansion appears to be coming from the long-tail of brand spending. While the top 10 product categories represent the lion’s share of spending, smaller categories expanded at a faster rate in February.
 

The top 10 categories rose 15 index points, while categories 11+ jumped 21 points in between January and February.