Tampa Bay Tops Nation for Lawyer TV Ads, Study Says

John Morgan is practically a household name in the Tampa Bay area.

After all, the trial lawyer’s face and message are pumped directly into homes throughout the region daily courtesy of an extensive and targeted television campaign. Just how extensive that campaign happens to be was revealed in a report released Tuesday, Oct. 27, by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform.

The institute estimates Morgan & Morgan has a TV advertising budget that tops $24 million annually. That budget, and those of other lawyers in the area, have helped the Tampa Bay metro area earn first-place ranking in the institute’s listing of metro areas most heavily saturated with legal advertising. The institute is charged with promoting efforts to combat frivolous lawsuits, which it says tug the American economy down.

In its Trial Lawyer Marketing analysis report, the institute pegs the Tampa region as the biggest in the country for the amount of legal ads that run on television. With 164,781 spot ads on record for 2015, the Tampa metro area is trailed by Orlando with 142,607 and Atlanta at 123,501. Nationwide, the institute estimates more than $890 million has been spent on legal advertising on television in 2015.

While the Orlando-based firm of Morgan & Morgan contributes heftily to Tampa’s numbers, the institute notes that firm isn’t the biggest spender in the country. AkinMears, a personal injury firm in Houston, outspends it with an estimated television ad budget around $30 million.

Good, bad or otherwise, the institute notes that spending on legal ads on TV is on the rise.

Television legal advertising has grown by a whopping 68 percent over the past eight years, the institute noted, rising from $531 million to this year’s projected $892 million. The breakneck pace adds up to growth that is six times faster than all over types of TV advertising, the report notes.

Check out the full report on the Institute for Legal Reform’s website.

Image via Shutterstock