The top 5 wireless ads: Verizon spends $90M in November, partly to boost Pixel phone, LTE Advanced

FierceWireless has partnered with TV advertising measurement firm iSpot.tv to bring you a monthly snapshot of the wireless industry's advertising spending. The results below are for the top five biggest advertising spenders among wireless industry brands from Nov. 1-30.

In November, 20 wireless brands spent an estimated $257.4 million on 120 national TV ad spots that aired 41,251 times. Longtime chart topper Verizon continued to reign supreme with over 35% of the industry’s estimated spend. Meanwhile, T-Mobile surpassed Sprint and AT&T to take second place.

(Check out how these numbers compare with MayJuneJulyAugust, September and October.)

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

1. Verizon

The Verizon ad with the most spend (est. $25.3 million): “Introducing Pixel: LTE Advanced

Here are some other key facts about Verizon's spending in November:

  • spent an estimated $90.9 million on 24 spots that ran 8,713 times

  • generated 2.7 billion TV ad impressions

  • spent the most on these networks: NBC, CBS and Fox

  • spent the most on these shows: NFL Football, College Football and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

2. T-Mobile

The T-Mobile ad with the most spend (est. $20.6 million): “Road Trip” featuring Ariana Grande  

Here are some other key facts about T-Mobile's spending in November:

  • spent an estimated $46.2 million on 19 spots that ran 6,641 times

  • generated 1.3 billion TV ad impressions

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

  • spent the most on these shows: NFL Football, College Football and the 2016 American Music Awards

3. Sprint

The Sprint ad with the most spend (est. $19.2 million): “Paul Switched”  

Here are some other key facts about Sprint's spending in November:

  • spent an estimated $39.6 million on 15 spots that ran 7,773 times

  • generated 1.4 billion TV ad impressions

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

  • spent the most on these shows: NFL Football, NASCAR Racing and the 2016 World Series

4. AT&T

The AT&T ad with the most spend (est. $22.3 million): “You Too”  

Here are some other key facts about AT&T's spending in November:

  • spent an estimated $37.1 million on 11 spots that ran 5,134 times

  • generated 866 million TV ad impressions

  • spent the most on these networks: ESPN, CBS and NBC

  • spent the most on these shows: College Football, NFL Football and the 2016 World Series

5. MetroPCS

The MetroPCS ad with the most spend (est. $4.5 million): “First Phone”  

Here are some other key facts about MetroPCS' spending in November:

  • spent an estimated $12.3 million on 13 spots that ran 4,526 times

  • generated 541 million TV ad impressions

  • spent the most on these networks: NBC, ESPN and Fox

  • spent the most on these shows: NBA Basketball, Impractical Jokers and TMZ


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.