Nielsen announced today the nominees for its third annual Nielsen IAG Automotive Awards. The awards recognize auto advertisers whose ads were found to be the most effective by Nielsen IAG’s 2.5+ million viewer panel. This year, awards will be distributed in three categories: Green Ad of the Year, Sales Event Campaign of the Year, and Automotive Ad of the Year.
Winners will be announced by Lois Miller, President of  Nielsen IAG Automotive, at the New York Auto Show on Wednesday, April 8.
“The automotive industry faced a very challenging year in 2008,” …

Advertising expenditures dropped 2.6% overall last year, according to data released today by The Nielsen Company. “Given the state of the U.S. economy, a decline in ad spending was expected, but it’s not as bad as it could have been,” said Annie Touliatos, VP of Sales Development for Monitor-Plus, Nielsen’s ad tracking service. “The campaign season and the Summer Olympics were two big events that had a tremendous impact on advertising, especially on TV buys.”
The automotive industry’s ad spending fell hardest in 2008. The industry slashed its spending by almost …