The top 5 wireless ads: Vote for your favorite May spot from Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and more

FierceWireless has partnered with iSpot.tv, a TV ad measurement company with attention and conversion analytics from 10 million smart TV screens, to bring you a monthly snapshot of the wireless industry's advertising spending. The results below are for the top five biggest spenders among wireless industry brands from May 1-31.

 

Total wireless industry TV ad spending decreased for the second month in a row, down to an estimated $180 million in May from about $200 million in April. Overall, 21 brands ran 108 TV spots over 38,200 times. Verizon continued to lead the pack with just over a quarter of the entire industry spend, followed closely by T-Mobile, while usual top-five finisher AT&T Wireless was noticeably absent.

(Check out how these numbers compare with October, November, December, February, March and April.)

Here are the top five advertisers in the wireless industry during the month of May, and their top ads:

1. Verizon:

  • Spent an estimated $46.7 million on eight spots that ran over 6,900 times

  • Generated 885.9 million TV ad impressions

  • Spent the most on these networks: NBC, ABC and TNT

  • Spent the most on this programming: NBA Basketball, NHL Hockey and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"

The Verizon ad with the most spend (est. $31.6 million): “Places Like This” featuring Thomas Middleditch


2. T-Mobile:

  • Spent an estimated $38.6 million on 16 spots that ran over 6,800 times

  • Generated 951 million TV ad impressions

  • Spent the most on these networks: NBC, ABC and Fox

  • Spent the most on this programming: "The Voice," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon"

The T-Mobile ad with the most spend (est. $13.6 million): “Taxes and Fees: BOGO Samsung Galaxy S8


3. Sprint:

  • Spent an estimated $29.9 million on 18 spots that ran over 8,000 times

  • Generated almost 1.2 billion TV ad impressions

  • Spent the most on these networks: NBC, Fox and TNT

  • Spent the most on this programming: NBA Basketball, NHL Hockey and "The Voice"

The Sprint ad with the most spend (est. $6.5 million): “The Only Thing Better Is iPhone 7 on Sprint


4. MetroPCS:

  • Spent an estimated $20.2 million on five spots that ran over 4,300 times

  • Generated over 677.5 million TV ad impressions

  • Spent the most on these networks: Univision, Fox and ABC

  • Spent the most on this programming: "La Reina de la Canción," NBA Basketball and "The Wendy Williams Show"

The MetroPCS ad with the most spend (est. $13.4 million): “Your Ticket to Amazing Coverage


5. Straight Talk Wireless:

  • Spent an estimated $12.5 million on two spots that ran over 1,300 times

  • Generated 423.6 million TV ad impressions

  • Spent the most on these networks: CBS, ABC and NBC

  • Spent the most on this programming: "The Late Late Show With James Corden," "The Big Bang Theory" and "The Voice"

The Straight Talk Wireless ad with the most spend (est. $7.5 million): “Don't Give Up, Bring Your Own Smartphone

 


iSpot's data does not include co-promotions or local market data. Click here for more on iSpot.tv's methodology.

The company's software leverages proprietary audio and video fingerprinting algorithms to automatically identify and extract TV commercials, movie trailers and show promos.  

The company tracks hundreds of millions of explicit interactions with TV ads across roughly 100 million unique consumersThese interactions include video plays, searches and social activity. The company also analyzes online views across YouTube and iSpot.tv, searches on Google, Bing and Yahoo!, and social activity on Facebook (including Facebook private views) and Twitter.

The company tags over 40 different dimensions of metadata, including brand, agency, actors, products, songs, moods, URLs and other pertinent data, to create its results.