Not every business has struggled in the last few months and for the best evidence as to who has done well, we only need to look at the marketing dollars which have been spent and how that has changed as 2020 wore on. Many agencies such as Two Nil, headed up by the brilliant Mark Zamuner, have recognized a key shift in ad dollars and the companies and sectors which are investing the most, indeed managing director of Two Nil Andre Artacho said the following on the subject of the lack of spending power which some businesses had, and the missed opportunity which this created:
“The increase of online audience on those channels was larger than the increase in advertiser’s
appetite to spend,”
There has been some contrasting figures in terms of how this has changed across Europe, for example we see that overall ad spending is down by 9%, where as worldwide figures are up. Let’s take a deeper look at how spending habits have changed when it comes to advertising budgets.
Retail Spending
Retail is very much the sector which has bucked the trend in terms of those sectors which have lost money, as retail media spending is going through the roof right now. The likes of Walmart and Amazon have seen massive increases in the number of products sold and so it is understandable that more and more sellers will be looking at boosting their ability to sell through those channels. We have seen a massive 45% increase in ad dollars spent in the retail sector over the last 3 months, staggering figures and perfectly understandable given the success of online retailers.
Local Marketing
Another key shift we have seen in spending and attitudes from agencies is the added focus on local businesses and localized advertising. As people regressed into their homes for lockdown they were far keener than before to support their local economy to keep those businesses going and this in turn resulted in more independent businesses squeezing some ad funds out in order to accumulate.
Buy Now
There has also been a big shift in the tone of the adverts which we have seen and there are more and more businesses who are looking for their ads to make instant sales rather than looking for anything extra from those ads. For example in the past businesses would have dedicated some of their marketing budget to promote the brand and to seek additional visibility and growth, but now they are looking to make as much money from their investment as they possibly can. As a result of this we are seeing a great deal of instant buy ads, more than ever before.
As you can see the entire landscape of the advertising industry has changed and whether or not things will move back to how they were before all of this remains to be seen, that will depend on how many businesses and industries survive.